Wattpad India Awards 2021

Learn: Editing your story

Here we are. The celebration of finishing your story, the moment when it all comes together.

All of it goes away when you open page one and see you used there instead of they're.

Don't worry, it happens to the best of us.

Now it's time to go back in and edit your content. For many, this will be the least fun part of writing (we're so far from world building!) and for others it might be the most fun (we don't have an example, we don't know anyone who's said this but they must be somewhere).

Exactly how you fix your story is down to you and perhaps your individual editor. You might get several different takes on your story, and each time you edit, that edit will need an edit, and so on until you reach a point where you feel it's as close to perfect as you can get it. You can do that alone, you can do it with one dedicated person, or it could involve numerous editors and friends helping out.

Since we can't say exactly how to fix your story, here are some good practices when editing:

Typos First. They're easy to remove and very objective. Words are either spelled right or wrong, and cleaning up these typos help make your story look and feel more professional. It also helps edit subjective things like word choice or pacing if you aren't distracted by errors.

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Read Out of Order. If you wrote it, you have an amazing memory of it. Unfortunately, this means you can accidentally slip into reading mode and completely overlook errors and issues because your brain fills in the gaps. Try reading chapters, paragraphs, even sentences in a random order so you can just focus on the words themselves.

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Have An Intention. It's very tough to do everything at once. Each time you go to edit, pick one thing you're going to look for, like sentence structure, and just edit that. Ignore other issues you see, leave a note on them to come back later.

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Read Out Loud. We're good at verbal storytelling and we usually speak a language way more than we ever write it. You can hear when a sentence sounds wrong or unnatural. This is particularly helpful for dialogues.

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Separate It. If you're stuck on a particular paragraph or even sentence, take it out of the story. Copy and paste it into a blank doc so you can review it without the surrounding context.

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Get Opinions. As said above, lots of people will give different opinions. That's a good thing! There's not one universal way to write, so gathering advice from everyone and then evaluating it can be a big strength. This unfortunately also makes things hard. One person might say cut a scene, the other will say save it. Listen to their reasons and figure out what matches your vision and understanding. Remember, you know the plot so if there's meant to be some foreshadowing that isn't inherently clear, you can work on making it memorable at least.

There won't always be one correct answer.

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Here are some of the common issues you should look for when editing:

Repeated Words. Just watch out for cases where you wrote 'she was rather confused by his rather puzzling words'. If you're being intentional 'it was a dark moment in a dark day in a dark life' it's alright, but often when editing you'll catch these repeats you didn't notice.

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Tense Changes. Past, present and future tense can't change during a scene. Definitely can't change during the same sentence.

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Point of View. Make sure that your point of view is very clear from the beginning (even without a POV marker) of each chapter. Characters should have distinct narrative voices and be in unique situations or hold unique perspectives.

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Dialogue Tags. There's a lot of potential for error here so pay attention to what you wrote. Punctuation has special rules around dialogue.

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Disappearing Characters. Watch for scenes where characters show up and get some meaningful introduction and then never appear again. Or where a character is in the story for a while before fading away. Or you've shown them entering a scene but they have no exit or purpose there. If you introduce them, they need to have an "exit," either literally or by having an arc to their character development.

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Pointless Scenes. If a scene doesn't move the plot or reveal something about a character or add to the world, it probably needs to go. If you read it and even you can't fully see how it fits in with the story, it definitely needs to go.

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Pace. This is hard to self-analyze because you love your story. But if you have way too much information or explanation and a scene just feels slow, that has to get cut. In contrast, if there's a lack of info making the scene go fast and making it tough to follow, you'll need to add. You'll probably want an outside opinion for this.

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Character Consistency. Your characters are developing through the story, which means they are likely slowly changing, but they still have to stay consistent both to their current characterization and to the larger change they're undergoing.

If someone is good and nice and learning to be a little more selfish, they wouldn't do something evil, that's a stretch too far. And they also shouldn't have a scene or arc where they learn to give back more; that's the opposite of the lesson they're learning.

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Love Isn't Needed.

Yeah, you read that right. Italics for emphasis. And this can be the toughest advice. You will love a lot of things and scenes your story doesn't need; sometimes these will be pairings. If your story is built around Romance, then obviously you need it. But otherwise, if two characters have no chemistry, don't feel natural or the feelings just feel abrupt and forced, you'll have to cut them. This is good advice for love triangles (or rectangles or whatever shape really) that cause unnecessary drama and wear down your readers.

Always be asking if you need the scene/character/dialogue/action in the story or just really like it for the sake of it.

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Remember, the first draft has done its job. All it had to do was exist. So pat yourself on the back for getting to this point.

No first draft is perfect and your story is no exception. Separate yourself from the competition by ensuring your manuscript is the absolute best it can be.

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We're just 1 month away from the opening of Wattpad India Awards 2021.

If you still haven't finished your story, it's time to hustle. Remember, only stories that are complete and marked 'Complete' on Wattpad are eligible for the awards. 

You can do this!