About editing

Why an editor?

Every writer needs an editor. Some may claim they don’t, but looking at their work it is obvious they may not realize how much they don’t know.

None of us can edit ourselves. Even editors need editors. Our minds are blind to omissions in our own work because our brains complete what isn’t there, or internally clarify what others might find confusing.

Can’t beta readers do this? No. A beta reader should be a member of your target audience who reads to point out anything that mars their enjoyment of the book—plot holes, inconsistencies, confusing presentation. They should not be looking for typos, tenses, or sentence structure. They are not trained to do this.

Choosing an editor

Choose one who gives you a contract. If they don’t, they are not professional, and may be a scammer. Walk away.

Experience in editing your genre is important for the editor to be familiar with reader expectations in that genre.

Proper setup saves money

Document size for editing should be 8.5 x 11 with 1” margins all around, no matter what size you want your final book pages to be. (Creative page design is done later in digital formatting.) Use 12 point Times Roman font, flush left, double spaced. Indent paragraphs (or not) according to your genre standards.

Set up all parameters in Style Sheets in Word. No multiple returns, no tabbed indents.

Familiarize yourself with Track Changes in Word because that is what an editor will use.

Common problems & fixes

Do you waste a lot of words explaining what’s happening—telling instead of showing?

Use strong concise verbs. “Went” and “walked” can be much improved upon! Don’t rely on adverbs (especially -ly words) to support weak verbs.

Don’t use multiple descriptors—each additional descriptor dilutes the others, rendering the passage muddy and weak. Choose one or two strong words instead.

Be aware of tenses. This can get tricky—past, present, past-perfect, and other variations. The wrong ones cause confusion, the right ones lend clarity.

Don’t overuse dialogue tags, and don’t get creative with them. Make the dialogue itself creative! Use action beats to show meaning.

Is your writing littered with filter words? These verbs increase narrative distance and hold readers away from experiencing the story. These include noticed, seems, saw, spotted, felt, realized, wondered, thought, believed, knew, decided. Most -ing words do the same.

Are your referential pronouns correct? A pronoun (he, she, they) refers back to the last named person. Many writers are unaware of this.