As every writer knows, finishing your manuscript is only the beginning. You still have to edit, find a publisher or way to self-publish, market your book, commission cover art and so on! All of this takes time and money, but you may be able to save some money by doing a self-edit. It is still advisable to have a professional editor go over your work if you are self-publishing, but they may well charge less as there are fewer errors to deal with. This is why many editors will ask for a sample of your writing before giving you a quote. They can consider the level of editing needed and how much time it is likely to take, so they have a rough idea of what to charge you. Consider the following ways to self-edit your manuscript.
Leave It Alone
The first thing to do is nothing! Give yourself a break from the manuscript for a while, so when you come back you will be refreshed and spot errors you wouldn’t have done before. Aim to leave it for at least a week, but the longer you can manage, the better. The point is for you to no longer have the strong writing attachment and be able to see it from a new perspective.
Listen To It
Listening to your writing will make any issues of flow and grammar stand out more clearly. You can read it aloud yourself or, even better, get a trusted friend to read it to you. It is better if someone else is reading it as they are unlikely to read in what you meant or skip over spelling mistakes. If you have other writer friends, you could suggest an exchange; they read your draft aloud, you read their draft aloud.
Alternatively, you could try using a text-to-speech program. Your computer will have one of these anyway, Narrator on Windows and Speech on Mac. These may not read with the same nuance and emphasis a human would, but can nevertheless be useful. Also, they will read your writing exactly as it is, with no chance of human error correction!
Check for Problem Words
There are some words it is very easy or common to make mistakes about, for example, effect/affect, then/than, its/it’s and practise/practice. If you unsure of anything, look it up! You can use a dictionary or just google both words together to get many results on the different meanings and usage. Grammar Girl is particularly good for this and I have a blog covering some commonly confused words.
Lose the Plot
It is very easy to get absorbed in the plot of a fiction work or flow of a non-fiction one, especially if it is your own writing. This can cause you to skip over mistakes as your brain switches out of editing mode and into plot focus. The way to remedy this is to ignore the plot or flow, but this is easier said than done! Try reading your manuscript backwards, either on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis or sentence-by-sentence. This lets you focus on just the passage at hand, rather than being distracted. It will also allow you to still consider the flow of individual sentences, helping you to pick up on grammatical errors and missing or repeated words.
Check the Plot
This is where it can really help to have someone else, such as a trusted friend or family member, to read your work. If there are any plot holes or glaring inconsistencies, they might pick up on them more easily, simply because they don’t know your story inside out and backwards like you do. You know a character’s motivations and why an event has happened, but readers might not. You can still do this yourself if you want, possibly taking notes on what points and facts you have established as you go along. You can then look at any subsequent events with these in mind and consider if these events will make sense to your readers and not distract them from the story.
Use Tools in Word
There are many tools in Word that can make your life that bit easier. The first is the spelling and grammar check, which can help pick up on some errors. It is worth noting that this is in no way comprehensive and will only find basic errors. It will also not always be correct! Consider each suggested change before making it and look up anything you are not certain about.
Another trick is using Word’s Find tool. You can use this by using the binoculars icon in the Home tab along the top, by using Control + F on PC or Command + F on Mac. This handy tool can then give you a lot of shortcuts for checking, for example, simply enter any of your problem words mentioned earlier and you can instantly see each occurrence in the document and check them. Don’t forget to check for both possibilities, so search for both ‘effect’ and ‘affect’.
The Find tool is also a quick way of finding double spaces (which should not be inserted between sentences), by entering a double space into the search box. You can even do a Find and Replace for this, as you should never have two spaces together. To do this, go to the drop-down menu by the binoculars in the Home tab and select Advanced Find. Then go to the Replace tab in the popup box and type two spaces into the Find box and one space into the Replace box. You can then Replace All or, if you think this may cause problems, you can Find Next and then Replace as you see each one, although this may be rather tedious!
Perfect Punctuation
If you know that you have trouble with a particular piece of punctuation, you can again use the Find tool to re-examine each instance. A common problem in this area is the use of commas. These should always be used to indicate speaker tags:
“Everyone needs commas,” said Bill.
Commas are also needed before a direct address, for example, there is a difference between “Let’s walk, Bill” and “Let’s walk Bill”. Unless Bill is your dog, he does not need to be walked, he can do that himself!
It is also important not to go overboard on punctuation. Too many commas splitting a sentence can actually make it more confusing to read, not less. If a sentence needs a lot of commas, consider splitting it into two sentences.
Finally…
This blog is not comprehensive and there are many other tips you can try. Also bear in mind that, while all of these measures help, they will not replace having a professional copy-editor or proofreader look at your writing. However, these techniques will make your work stronger from the beginning, which may well reduce prices. Self-editing may also get you to reconsider important plot points, giving you a valuable insight into your own work.
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