Self Editing: The Magical Words, Delete and (gasp) Add!

Have you taken a moment to go through your already written stuff and find some weak areas? Good! That is an amazing step. Really! Even if your writing was not 100% complete, using last month’s information to take a long, hard look is doable. And, to be honest, preferable. It’s easier to learn along the way than to go back through a “finished” manuscript and have to pull it all apart. So, going slightly backward, we need to go into what editing is. I know, I know. You’re thinking I’ve just lost my mind. But bear with me. There is a reason.
Everyone sees posts online about “Doing edits” and then counting how many pages of edits they’ve done. I’ve often wondered if everyone knows exactly what they’re up to?
Stephen King has some very set rules about his writing: Take 10% off the “finished” manuscript. And though the majority of us authors tend to put way too much in as opposed to not enough, and we do need to chop, that rule of thumb may not always be right.
When teaching this topic at writing conferences, it’s always interesting to see reactions when the following list of the definitions of “edit” shows up on the screen.

Read the entire article in the March 2018 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

Subscriptions are free!

You can just click on the magazine image on the left hand side of our home page to open and enjoy!

OR

If you would like to receive the magazine every month (for FREE!) , just sign up on our home page. Once you do, an e-mail validation notice will be sent directly to you. Just open and click the link and you're in - forever!  Each month the magazine will be delivered directly to your inbox to downlad and read!