Just Write 2020

Edit, Edit, Edit. Did we mention edit?

Hi Seedlings

We know how it goes, we've been there: You're really excited about your new story and are super thrilled as to where it's going and then one day you're just chilling and you get the BEST idea for a new chapter. You rush to your computer or phone and start speed writing. You're so excited because you're going to update sooner then you were planning and now you're definitely going to have those two new chapters you promised your devoted readers. You're proud of yourself, you've written over 1000 words of pure content. You scan over the work to make sure you haven't made any mistakes and then you hit publish, satisfied. 

However, when you read it the next morning you are horrified to find all your spelling and grammar mistakes and realise that half the chapter has nothing to do with the story. Or even worse, you don't go back and read over the chapter at all. 

If you are giving your work a quick overview before publishing it and calling it editing we are here to grab you by the shoulders and shake you violently because NO NO NO. This is not editing. We repeat this is NOT editing. 

Want to know why never in your wildest dreams this will ever be considered sufficient editing?

When you've just put your thoughts and story down onto paper it's going round and round in circles in your head, you still remember what you wrote all too well. This means your brain is going to fix mistakes as you read because it knows what should be there or it is simply not going to process it properly as it sees this as old information that you already know. This means that you are going to skip over mistakes, miss grammar errors and not realise when 'whoops I was thinking so fast I didn't type like five words' and 'oops that sentence makes complete sense (not)'. 

Writing and editing are not the same processes thus they should not be done at the same time. An important point: Just because you can write does not mean you can edit and just because you can edit does not mean you can write, because they are different processes and require different thinking and skills. Sure you have a higher chance of being able to do the other if you can do the one but this is not always the case. Some writers are hopeless at editing, no matter how many years they have been doing it for. 

So the first step in editing is to determine if you actually know how to edit and if you can do it reasonably (we're not looking for perfection but goodness everyone's writing needs a little fix up). 

You do not do this by editing your own work - rather take another piece of writing (preferably one that will have mistakes - a friends essay, another Wattpad book, even a long text message) and see how many mistakes you can pick up in grammar and spelling. 
Virtually everyone can do this, our brain gets lazy when it comes to reading so when something is wrong it sticks out like a sore thumb. Granted it does take time to get good at finding all the mistakes and the little more complex mistakes (such as comma splice errors and all those ridiculous punctuation rules).

But just take your brain for a spin and see how you do - now give it to someone else and see how they do. If they pick up more mistakes than you (that are actually mistakes sometimes we confuse ourselves), then your skills need some fine-tuning, if they pick up less then congrats you can edit very basically! 

Yes basically - editing is not just about how we spell things and where we are supposed to put a comma or whether or not you just rambled for about 100 words without putting a single full stop. Editing is about flow, style, fluency, readability and sense. Yes, you heard us, sense. 

Because your writing can have no spelling or punctuation errors but that doesn't mean it makes a whole lot of sense. More so your sentences can be perfect without a single error but that doesn't mean your chapter makes a whole lot of sense. Whether your story is fluent and flows in a pretty logical manner are vitally important in assuring that your readers keep reading and want to know more. 

Now we don't mean set everything out so that the plot is completely predictable and you can figure out what's going to happen from the first chapter because that's boring and does the complete opposite of what all writers are trying to achieve. But please don't make your writing so riddled with digressions and sub-plots that the readers aren't even sure if there is a plot. Please don't get upset if you tend to do this, we all do, sometimes writers just get excited and the story in their head is far greater then what needs to be put on the page. 

This is what good editing does. It streamlines our thinking and writing and ensures that we stay on track and only allow the necessary digressions. Good editing creates fluency between paragraphs, chapters and books (if there is more then one following the same story). Good editing makes reading a privilege and not something that you have to strain your brain to understand. Good editing is like frozen grapes of a blistering hot day (If you haven't tried it then we highly recommend you do, it's like little pockets of frozen bliss). Editing can make or break a book. 

So how exactly do you edit well? 

Firstly you do not start to edit right after you have written the piece of writing. In fact, don't even start the next day, give it about two days before you open that document again and start to edit. Your brain needs a break so please let it have one - thank us later. In fact the longer you wait before editing without being ridiculous and breaking your flow, the better. 

But New Writer Awards my readers want me to update now *sad face*

We're sure they do but they will be much more grateful for a beautifully constructed chapter than one that you wrote at 2 in the morning after a weird dream. Quality over quantity friends, quality over quantity. 

Well there's a lot to it so we will be breaking the individual parts down in some future chapters (if you would like us too) but we will provide the jist of it here:

Step 1: Find every and we mean every, spelling, grammar and sentence construction error that you can get your hands on and fix it. Again you can always use various apps and websites to help this part of the process along. 

Step 2: Look for repetition descriptions and adjectives, repetition can get very boring after a while so look out for the overuse of certain descriptions and adjectives. Also, look out for the use of very, it is not ideal for amazing descriptions. 

Step 3: Look to see if you are telling and not showing, spice up your descriptions and making them more detailed and a little bit more interesting. Again quality descriptions over quantity descriptions. We will go into more detail about this in the future.

Step 4: How are your characters doing? Are they still the same person or did they get 67 new personality traits in the span of 6 seconds that contradict everything they stood for in the last 3 chapters? Of course, this is an over-exaggeration on our part but you know what we mean. Your characters have to remain the same person at their centre and can't change their way of speaking, reacting and being every chapter. 

Step 5: Read your last chapter - We're not kidding, go and read your last chapter. Is the flow from one chapter to the next fluent? Does it make sense? You can make it jumpy on purpose but that doesn't mean it shouldn't make any sense. 

Step 5: Now read it out loud, whether it be to all your teddy bear pals or a person just read it out loud. There is a crazy miracle that happens when you read something out loud and suddenly all your little mistakes or confusing paragraphs jump out at you and you can fix them. 

You should be pretty a-okay to go now. We will go into deep cleaning later, deep cleaning comes after you have written your first draft. If you want us to break down any of the steps into more detail then please let us know. 

We hope this helps! And don't forget to edit, edit, edit. 

We look forward to reading your well-edited stories
The New Writer Awards Team