Lewis' Book of Reviews and Writing Advice

Editing

This chapter is dedicated to Steve who has sat and edited several stories and books with me. Thanks for your patience, bro!

~~~

Welcome back, Ink Jars, for Professor Lewis' advice chapter on editing. Editing can be freaky, stressful, and A LOT! It can make you give up and forfeit work which has LOTS of potential!!! As I've stated before: NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR WRITINGS!!! Anyway, I'm here to answer some questions which might be on your mind about the dreaded Editing:

Why Edit?  Editing is like a lacquer job. It is like the finishing coat of paint. It is the glaze on pottery! The first reason to edit is for presentation! If you respect your story, and want respect for yourself as an author, you want to share your book. Therefore, you need to get rid of all little mistakes and make sure it is perfect and exactly what you are attempting to bring across. The second reason, is that it completely finishes your work! It gives you a feeling of accomplishment and success.

When should I edit?  This seems like a silly question with an obvious answer, but it is one we must address. So you can edit little things bit by bit if you want. Let's assume that you have written chapter one of your book. You are now on chapter three. What you can do, is go back and edit chapter one in your spare time and then continue writing. You can also edit at the very end of the book--which is common and will be discussed later. I-for one-edit go back and edit scenes (some more than others) because I am constantly wishing to read certain scenes again and again for my own entertainment.

NOTE: If you are wondering about editing on Wattpad, I would suggest you go through each chapter once it's completed and read it silently, and out loud to catch most--if not all- mistakes before  publishing!!!

What are the Benefits?  As stated before, editing benefits your reputation. The official, published writing world does NOT enjoy error after error after ERROR! Plus, editing reminds you of what you may have missed or forgotten. You may have planned for something big (or small) to happen to your characters, but forgot. Re-reading will remind you of these things and give you new ideas!

How should I edit? Alright so I've already given several suggestions on this, but here's the OFFICIAL one:

1.) Write your book (I would suggest you just type it on Microsoft Word. It makes editing WAY easier)

2.) Print off, read and edit each chapter of your book BY HAND with a red pencil to cross of words and a blue to add things (take two days on each chapter). Read it in your head and edit out any errors first. The second day, read the chapter out loud. Feel free to add and take out scenes. Then transfer what you've edited into the actual document.

3.) Once you've edited through the whole book, read the entire thing in one day out loud. Grab a friend and take turns. It makes editing really quite fun actually.

4.) After you've done these, send it to several other trusted people who are interested in reading your books. Tell them to give you suggestions--and NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT HURTS, take the criticism head on. You don't have to use all the advice they give you, but be wary of it. Write the book you want to read.

Later I'm going to post a part two on how to decide what scenes need to die and which need to live. Your faithful writer, Lewis