Simple Editing Tricks for Your Book

Do you have a manuscript ready for others to read? Maybe you’re handing it off to critique partners, an agent, a publisher, or an editor. Before you send your draft to someone, below are a few simple tricks to help kick your story into shape. 
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I’ve edited and critiqued many manuscripts, and my stories have been critiqued and edited by many others as well. All in all, I’ve realized writers make the same mistakes, some more than others. Hopefully, this post will help improve your writing. 

Words to Remove

• Just — It’s okay to use this word in dialogue, but use just sparingly throughout other parts of your story.
• Is going to, or other versions of this phrase — In many cases, this phrase can be removed and/or replaced with the words: will or would 
• Barely and Almost — Remove many of these words, or words that mean the same thing. Sentences filled with weak adjectives make the scene weaker. Instead, be specific. For example: 

I was barely out the door before he called my name. 
Change this sentence to: I stepped outside and took two steps before he called my name. 

It was nearly sunrise.
Change this to: It was ten minutes until sunrise. 

These probaby aren't the best examples to use, because I'd try to remove the word "was" and paint the scene with beautiful imagery. But they'll give you a good idea of what I mean.

Activate Your Sentences

• was verb-ing phrases — This fix won’t work for every sentence, because some sentences (such as dialogue) might need to keep was. But in many cases, this trick activates passive sentences. For example:

 I was jumping for the ball.
Change the sentence to: I jumped for the ball. 

​Adjectives and Adverbs

Describing a character’s looks and actions is always good, but if you describe the same body part/action over in over, find other ways to replace the description. For example, if you’re constantly writing about a character’s eyes, raised brows, shrugged shoulders, pursed lips, brown hair, change it up. To help describe a character’s actions, I suggest purchasing The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. This thesaurus will give you hundreds of ways to describe emotions through a variety of actions. 

Show Don't Tell

This can be tricky for writers. Even my editor will point out my "telling" mistakes at times, but I’ve come to realize that in many instances when a writer subconsciously (or consciously) is scared to write a scene, they end up “telling” it instead.

A good example of this is when chapters begin with telling the reader about something juicy that happened the day/night before. Instead of telling your reader what happened, include the scene taking place in “real time.” Readers don’t want to read about something juicy after it happens, they want to experience the juiciness as it's happening.

Another example is stating a character is sad or happy or angry. Instead of telling the reader, he looked at me with sad eyes, describe what the sad eyes look like and/or use dialogue. You could say something like, Tears streamed down his puffy face and blotchy cheeks. Or He covered his face with his hands and peeked at me through his fingers. With red eyes and a weak voice, he said, “I can’t believe she dumped me.”  

Not everything needs to be “shown,” some things can be told, but if the scene is important and you want the reader to take notice of what’s occurring, then show it.

​POV Switch

​If you’re writing in first-person POV or Limited third-person POV, then be careful of telling the reader what a character—who isn’t the protagonist—feels. You can use actions from a character that makes the protagonist think she/he knows what the character is feeling, but the protagonist can’t know for sure. In these instances, you can write that the character seems or appears to be (sad, happy, angry). Or you can allow the character to tell the protagonist exactly what he or she is feeling. 

​Editing Programs

I use the free version of Grammarly and live by it every day. The program isn’t always correct, but it catches many misspellings and misused words that I miss. The best thing is it can be programmed to work directly in Word, so that you don’t have to copy and paste your work into the Grammarly app.

Hemingway Editor isn’t free, but it doesn’t cost much. This program will point out long sentences that can be shortened, overused adverbs and adjectives, confusing structures, etc.

By using these two programs together, you’ll definitely improve your writing.

I hope these tips and tricks have helped you. Editing can be difficult, and some writers can’t afford editors, but no matter what your circumstances are, try to have other people read your finished manuscript to point out mistakes you've missed. Even though I hire an editor, proofreaders also read my finished manuscript before it's published. 

For more in depth tips about writing, purchase
A Wordy Woman's Guide for Writing a Book on Amazon.

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About the author:

Dawn Husted

​Dawn wrote her first book in 2008. Now, she’s the author of 5 books, owner of Yaupon Berry Press, and a member of SCBWI and Texas Association of Authors. She's passionate about the Oxford comma and loves a well-structured plot.
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A Wordy Woman's Guide was created with a tenacious spirit and an enormous vision to offer resources that empower aspiring authors.

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