10 TIPS FOR SELF-EDITING

Sharing my tips on self-editing our manuscripts. By no means a standard. Feel free to add. This is a thread.

1. Do not edit when you are writing. When writing, focus only on getting the words on paper.
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2. When the first draft is done, keep your manuscript aside for a few weeks. Do not look at it. Distract yourself. Then start the self-editing process. Distancing yourself from the manuscript makes you see it more as a reader would.
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3. You need to absolutely delete sentences that say the same thing, regardless of how wonderfully you have written them. Readers hate repetition and being treated as retards above anything else.
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4. Check your dialogues. Does every character has his/her own voice? Pick up a random dialogue and check if you can hear your character speaking it.
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5. Keep descriptions short. Avoid lengthy descriptions of locations, physicalities, clothes, food, etc. Use only when relevant and be judicious. Don't describe everything at once. Intersperse your descriptions between the scenes.
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6. Make sure something is happening in every scene to advance your story. Delete all filler scenes even if you consider them your literary masterpieces. Go easy on the musings and philosophies. Readers will begrudge you for the verbosity.
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7. Keep a close check on character arcs. Trim out everything that doesn't suit your character' growth. Keep plot advancement in mind, always.
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8a. Language. Make sure you are as grammatically perfect as possible. It doesn't hurt to check your school grammar rules. Make sure your punctuations are all right when you write; it's a nightmare to correct every quotation mark and comma afterwards.
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8b. Use active voice and passive voice as the situation demands; the former is preferable. Refrain from using needless adverbs when your scene already establishes a fact. Don't use cliche idoms and proverbs; try making your own.
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8c. If you use similes and metaphors, they better be really, really good, good enough to keep. Keep a good balance between show and tell; again, the former is preferred.
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9. Absolute test to ensure your story is good to send: Read the manuscript repeatedly. If you enjoy reading it even for the third time, and it isn't obstructed by bad language, then go ahead and mail it forward.
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10. And now that you have edited your manuscript, send it to a professional editor. We need an expert eye to look at what we are going to put out into the world in our name. We owe our manuscript that.
All the very best. Onward to the next bestseller!
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