GUYS – sorry if this landed in your inbox in 2017, I did not mean to repost it, my bad.
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Editing is a bitch. I’ve written about the differences between editing and revising before. But my dear friend Ali recently taught me one of the best, most practically useful lessons I’ve ever learnedd when it comes to editing.
See for a long time, I wrote linearly and then when I finished, went back to the start and edited.
That’s good. But no matter how many times I did it, I still found a shit-tillion mistakes. Which resulted in a sort of crazed, goggle-eyed, fuzzy haired – I’m going to commit arson on my manuscript – type look. It wasn’t pretty, my hairs curly enough thanks.
So, I listened to Ali and started tweaking the method to suit me. I’m going to share this editing trick with you, and hopefully, it will help you to clean up your scripts too.
The fundamental problem with editing is that we know our stories. We know our stories as well as we know how to breathe. It’s in-our-blood fundamental. Which means, we’re not subjective.
Getting any kind of objectivity over your manuscript is like trying to use your dominant hand, to cut off your dominant hand! It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable, and quite frankly, fucking painful.
There are a gazillion suggestions of how you can get objectivity:
- Take time away from your script
- Put your manuscript in a different font
- Print it out
- Read it out loud
All great tips. All tips I’ve used with varying success. But I was still making one fundamental error. I was still reading my manuscript in a logical, front to back order.
FAIL of capital proportions.
But Ali said: read backwards. Now I needed a bit more meat to that bone. If I actually read word for word backwards, I wouldn’t be able to edit a thing. It would read like turd. So here’s what I did.
- Started with chapter one like normal
- But started at the END of the chapter
- I read each individual paragraph forward in the normal way. But I started from the first word of the last paragraph in that chapter
- So the first thing I read is the last paragraph of a chapter
- Then I read the penultimate paragraph
- Then the paragraph above that
- I worked backwards till I reached the first paragraph of my chapter
Why does this work?
You’re forced not to read the story. You can’t. Because the story isn’t being played out for you any more. It’s disjointed, out of order, nonsensical and completely new to you.
You’re not able to lose yourself in your story, because what you’re reading isn’t a story any more. It’s just paragraphs of words.
Voila, you have objectivity.
I was skeptical at first, I didn’t see how I could pick up on any mistakes when I wasn’t reading ‘the story’ how could I get a feel for flow or pace or anything for that matter?
Boy did I have to eat some extra sugar coated humble pie.
Never, and I do mean never, have I been so effective at picking up my own mistakes. It was like the fucking holy grail itself landed on my lap and let me guzzle super charged editing juice from its glorious cup. I mean, just look at the state of those pages. AND I ACTUALLY THOUGHT MY MANUSCRIPT WAS OKAY BEFORE! Wrong.
Wrong.Wrong. Wrong. Fucking Wrong.
You don’t have to print the pages off like I did, honestly, hand editing has taken me an inordinate amount of time. But much to my frustration, that’s just what works for me. I changed the font, read backwards and annotated. I have used enough sticky posts to wall paper the Earth’s crust, but that’s enabled me to write myself notes and questions where I’ve found plot holes, consistency issues, mistakes or character questions.
Here’s a non exhaustive list of the kinds of mistakes this method has enabled me to pick up despite not reading the story in a logical order:
- Characterisation problems
- Character consistency
- Plot holes
- Timeline errors
- Punctuation and grammar faults like: commas, apostrophes, capital letters, missed words, repeated words
- Over use of identical metaphors and similes
- Over/under exposition
- Over/under foreshadowing
- Sentence flow and pace
- Word order and sentence structure
Give it a go. Let me know how you find it and whether it works for you too. What editing tricks have you got up your sleeves? What’s the best trick anyone ever taught you? Let me know in the comments.
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All good stuff as usual, Sacha, but the best bit is – shit-tillion. What a great word!
haha thanks Colin, I rather liked that word too! :p
Whoa, I would never have thought of that. I’m almost at the stage of editing my next WiP so I definitely think I’ll give this a go (though knowing me I’ll probably try and literally read backwards!)
I know right. I hadn’t thought of it either and it makes SO much sense! I hope it works – let me know how you find it.
Will do!
A great technique, thanks for sharing! It’s a good method to use even when it’s not your own writing. I’ll definitely be using it on my editing jobs. P. S. On page 38, opening paragraph of Chapter 12, 3rd sentence, “twinge” should be “twinged” to match the past tense of the sentence. (Couldn’t resist, as good as your tip is, nothing trumps a stranger’s eye.) 🙂
Glad you like the technique.
Sorry – do you mean on the photo of my manuscript? I tried to make it blurry so it couldn’t be read! It’s not even close to being ready!
I will definitely use this advise when I ever get around to write my first novel…
Glad you found it useful
Perfect time to read your blog. I’m going over & over every page. I’ll give this ago tonight and let you know if it works for me. Thanks a million. 🙂
I hope it does Lorraine – it works for me 😀
I’m loving it, I’ve picked up on things that I had previously missed. Fantastic approach.
hurrah 😀
Nice idea, thank you for sharing. I also like to reverse outline my writing. Break it down into its basic elements, see what’s missing.
Glad you like it, I hope if you try it, it works for you 😀
Great tip. Shall use on my next edit. Thanks very much! 🙂
Glad you liked it, I hope it works for you
I’ve been using this trick recently and I can’t believe how well it works! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Amazing, I love that it works for you too 😀 😀 it literally revolutionised my editing. Although, I have now shifted to doing it on screen and changing the font as I found it took too long by hand
Thanks so much, Sasha. These tips are very useful. I recently had a big disappointment when a short story I entered in a local competition didn’t place. However, I didn’t have the time to put it aside before the deadline and when I revisited it, saw glaring structural problems. UNfortunately, there was about a 3 month gap inbetween entering and the results and so far, I haven’t been able to get back into it. It’s based on a true story and I’m really going to have to go through all the research again to get back in the zone. That’s going to have to wait til the New Year now.
xx Rowena
You’re most welcome 😀 I am glad you like them. Ahh, it SUCKS when you don’t place, but honestly, it won’t be the last time, I lost count a long time ago of how many comps I didn’t place in. I tend to think short story comps are after a particular style of writing usually. But that 3 month gap you had will be the best thing you ever did. I’ve had a couple of months away from my novel now and it was the best thing I could ever have done – space gives you perspective – good luck revising it 😀
Very helpful. For shorter work I find reading aloud catches most errors. I’m going to have to try this on longer pieces.
Thanks very much, I agree on reading aloud, but it’s slow if u have a long novel like u say. Thanks for stopping in
I came across this on FB and thought * I need to sqirrel this away so I can use it..* Once I am well enough to tackle the last swipe at my novel; getting better each day. 😇 .
Hope you’re okay – I haven’t caught up with what’s wrong other than that you’ve been sick, but I really hope you’re okay and that you’re on the mend. Sending you love.
That helps oodles, and thank you for asking. X Looking forward to the bash… can I give a prize to the next story winner, hand over the crown as it were?.
Of course, you can. Hugh will be announcing the winner, so he can announce you as last year’s winner and then you can award the winner’s trophy to whoever wins.
I hope I am upto taking part but we will have to see how that one pans out. I am looking forward to seeing you all.