10 Tips to Editing Your Own Novel

Tip #1: You’ve finished the first draft of your novel. Congratulations. Take some time off and celebrate. No, really, I mean it. Set your novel in a drawer for at least six weeks. Do something else in the meantime. If you want, start another novel, go on vacation, read a book, visit friends, or spring clean the house. But resist the temptation to pick up that draft. This is the first and most important step to self-editing. You need to look at your work with a fresh eye.

The six weeks are over. It’s time to pull out that manuscript and get busy. Now what? Here’s some things that will help.

Tip #2: Read or review a self-editing book to remind yourself what problems you are looking for. My favorite is “Self-Editing For Fiction Writers” by Browne and King. Even if you’ve read this book before, you’ll need the reminders fresh in your mind.

Tip #3: Use find and replace to search out ly words and other problem words, and replace them when you can. See this link  for the problem words and this link  for how to get rid of ly words.

Tip #4: Print out a hard copy of your manuscript. Read it over using a red ink pen to make notes in the margins. It’s amazing what you’ll find when you read a hard copy.

Tip #5: After reading the hard copy, go back and make your changes.

Tip #6: Print the manuscript out again, find the red ink pen. This time, read your manuscript out loud using your red ink pen to mark changes that need to be made.

Tip #7: Now go back and make the changes again.

Tip #8: You guessed it. Print the manuscript out a third time. No, I’m not trying to kill trees. This is a very important part of the process. You need that hard copy in front of you when you’re editing.

Tip #9: Make the changes, and read through it two more times. You don’t have to print it out this time. But you might want to try reading it backwards so you can find common grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

Tip #10: Have a small group of people to read over your finished product. You will need at least one grammar expert in this group. The other members can be a couple of people who love to read and a writer or two who will give you a hard critique. See this link for how to have a critique help your writing. Make any needed changes you agree with.

Now you’re done. Give yourself a pat on the back. Then get busy and write a query and proposal, and research those literary agents and publishers.

A writer’s work is never done.

How to Format Your Novel or Manuscript

Industry standards on formatting a manuscript change from time to time, and not all publishers agree on formatting. But this is what most publishers consider standard today.

Font: Times New Roman or another standard font in 12 point size.

Page Setup: One inch margins on top, bottom, and both sides.

Line Spacing: Double Spaced

First Page: Centered on Page

First Line: Title in all caps

Second Line:  A Novel by

Third Line:  Author’s Name

Forth Line:  If you have an agent, Agented by

Left Side Header: Name, Address, Phone Number, E-mail Address

Right Side Header: Word Count

Header for Other Pages:  On right side – Last Name/Name of Manuscript/Page Number

Chapter Headings:  Start each new chapter on a new page about 1/3 of the way down the page. Chapter Title should be centered and in all caps. Then double space twice before starting the first paragraph of the chapter.

Paragraphs:  Each new paragraph should be indented 5 spaces.

Scene Changes:  To signify a scene change, type ### or *** centered on the next line. Then start a new paragraph.

Italics: Standards have change concerning italics. They used to have you underline. Now you should place italics in italics.

Spaces between Sentences:  Only use one space, not two, between sentences.

Date or Setting Line at the Beginning of a Scene: If you need to have the date, day, or place at the beginning of a scene, place it in italics and don’t indent. Then start another line for the first paragraph of the scene.

Letters: If you have a letter in the body of your manuscript, indent the letter 10 spaces on each side.

Microsoft Word: If you use Microsoft Word, click here to read more about how to use templates for your manuscript.

Increasing The Word Count In A Manuscript

Although some writers have problems writing too many words for their novel, other writers find when they finish their first draft, they have too few words. Here’s some ways too increase your word count without making your story boring.

Flesh out any areas where you’re telling about a scene and not showing it. Every writer can find at least a few places where they’re doing that.

Develop layers of subplots. Subplots will make your novel more interesting. One word of caution – make sure your subplots connect in some way with the main story. You don’t want a bunch of bunny trails.

Develop minor characters. Spend some time turning your one dimensional characters into interesting people. Here’s a link to help you create interesting characters.

Don’t allow talking heads. Talking heads are stories where two characters are talking to each other on an empty stage. There’s no description of where they are or what they’re doing. If you find this in your story, give your characters bodies and a place to stand while they’re delivering their dialogue.

Add description. Too much description can slow down a story, but adding descriptions, especially descriptions that affect the characters in some way, will make your story richer.

Add interior monologue. Get inside your point of view character’s head from time to time. Let the reader know what she’s thinking.

Blow something up. There’s nothing like blowing up a character’s plans and goals to increase the word count of a story and to make it more exciting. Here’s a link that tells more about this.

Decreasing The Word Count In A Manuscript

Many times, after the first or second drafts, writers find they have monumental manuscript of 200,000 or more words. If you find yourself in that situation, here’s some ways to decrease your word count without hurting your story.

Look for unnecessary words like that, just, or ly words. A strong verb can sometimes take the place of a lot of words. Here’s a link to some words you can look for.

Are you beginning where the action starts? Sometimes writers start their stories too early. Find the point where your story gets interesting, and cut everything before that. Also if you have a prologue or a lot of back story in the first few chapters, lose it.

Look at each scene. Any scene that doesn’t further the story has to go no matter how good it is. So close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hit delete.

Consider cutting out a lot of your descriptions. Sometimes we spell out too much for the reader. Scant details such as brown hair or blue eyes can go a long way toward fueling the writer’s imagination. You don’t have to write about the shape of the eyes and chin, how long the nose is, where the hair is dark brown, reddish brown, sandy brown, or medium brown. You don’t even have to include what the person’s wearing unless it’s important to your story. Let the reader fill in the details.

Look for places your narrative is wordy. Consider how to say things using fewer words.

Resist the urge to explain what is happening to the reader. Let the dialogue and action speak for itself. For instance, if you write he shouted loudly because he was angry, you’re doing this. Shouting can only be done loudly and is usually done when a person is angry.

Don’t be redundant. Don’t repeat things over and over. Trust the reader to get it the first time.

If you do these steps, you’ll move a long way toward decreasing the size of your novel.

How to Use Critiques to Improve Your Novel

Every fiction writer can benefit from a critique of his or her work. But too many critiques, critiques done too early, and taking advice from the wrong people make a critique your worst nightmare. These are the best ways to benefit from critiques.

Don’t get a critique too early. Finish your first draft before you even consider getting a critique. In fact, you should edit and polish your story the best you can before you ever show it to someone else. There are some reasons for this. In the first draft, you are working out the story on paper. You don’t need someone telling you they don’t believe your characterizations or where your plot is going. You work those out in the first draft as you discover your story. The novel evolves as you write it, and if you share it too soon, it will no longer become the story you have because other people’s opinions will affect the way the story evolves.

Edit your own first draft. After you finish your first draft, put it in a drawer and ignore it for at least a couple of weeks. This will help your objectivity and make it easier to edit. Now you do your own editing. You’ll learn your craft by laboring over your first and second drafts working them to become great. Do the hard work. Don’t expect others to do it for you.

Be careful whom you have critique. After you’re sure you’ve edited and rewritten the best you can, go ahead and show the story to a few people who love the genre of fiction you write. You’ll want different people in the mix. If you know a grammar expert, definitely recruit that person as one of your best resources. Also, find a couple of people who love to read but don’t necessarily write to point out where characters or plots seem unbelievable or where the reader loses interest. Last, find a couple of writers well versed in the craft who understand your voice and style of writing. Many times finding a good group of critiquers is trial and error. Keep working at it until you find the team that helps you the most.

Don’t Get Discouraged. When you get your critiques, don’t be discouraged by varying opinions. Remember they are opinions. Also, after you read a critique, don’t change anything right away. Let the critique set a day or two to digest the information and help you look at it in a fresh way.

Plan how you use critiques. Correct punctuation, spelling and grammar errors, and any writing errors such as adverbs, POV problems, and repeated words. Now you’re ready for the other comments – things such as holes in the plot, character problems, and pacing. Don’t make these changes right away. Stew on them for a while. Consider which opinions you want to use. If more than one person points out something, give that opinion more weight. But remember, it’s your story.

 Don’t get too many critiques. I’d say more than ten is excessive. You probably don’t even want that many. If you have too many opinions about your work, you might be tempted to second-guess yourself. It’s your story. Always remember that.

Genre Word Counts

Many times a writer will write a novel, edit it, polish it, write a great query letter and proposal, and submit it to a publisher or agent only to find the word count is wrong. Here are general guidelines for the word count publishers are looking for with different genres. Keep in mind that specific publishers may have different word count preferences.

Fantasy Genre: Fantasy novels can contain between 80,000 and 150,000 words (approximately). Fantasy novels can be a little longer than other novels, and they are sometimes serialized.

Romance Genre: A stand-alone romance novel is normally between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A category romance novel (like those published by Harlequin) is generally shorter (usually around 60,000 words), and each “imprint” will have its own criteria.

Historical Fiction Genre: A stand-alone historical book may be 85,000 to 100,000 words. Publishing a book longer than 100,000 words is difficult (especially for first-timers), but historical novels are sometimes longer. Historical category romances are shorter, generally about 60,000 words.

Mystery Genre: Mysteries vary in length. Stand-alone mysteries (which may have some overlap with thrillers) may be between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Cozy mysteries, like those in a series, are often on the shorter side, about 50,000 to 60,000 words.

Suspense/Thriller Genre: Thriller novels generally run between 90,000 to 100,000 words (loosely), but they can be a little longer as well.

Speculative Genre: Speculative and Horror novels vary in length and are generally between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

Young Adult (YA) Genre: Generally, YA books run between 40,000 and 75,000 words, depending on the target age group.

Western Genre: Westerns tend to be on the shorter side, anywhere from 45,000 to 75,000 words.

If you’re not sure where your novel fits on this list, the general rule of thumb is a stand alone novel is generally 80,000 to 100,000 words. A tradeback or catagory genre novel (a novel generally printed in paperback by a company that puts out manystandard genre novels a year) is between 50,000 and 75,000 words.

Microsoft Word Features For Writers Part 2: Thesaurus, Word Count, Spelling & Grammar Check, Editing

Thesaurus:

Highlight the word you want to look up, and go to review, then click thesaurus. You may want a more comprehensive thesaurus available during editing, but when writing the first draft, MS Word thesaurus is more than adequate.

Grammar and Spell Check:

Go to grammar and spell check, then click options to change the grammar settings the way you want. You can even set it to show passive sentences and show the grade level you’re writing at. You can even set the spell check to change or highlight certain words as you type them.

CAUTION:  Always check your manuscript. Never rely completely on spell and grammar checks.

Word Count: 

MS Word 2007 shows the word count at the bottom of the window. Earlier versions have the word count under the edit tab. You can find out the word count of a chapter by highlighting that chapter. Word will show you the word count of the highlighted area as well as the word count of the whole document. If you want to keep track of how much you write each day, place bookmarks at the end of each day’s work and highlight that section.

Editing and Critiques:

There are two great devices you can use when editing your manuscript or critiquing others. The first is the comment window found under review in MS Word 2007. If you want to comment about a section without changing it, highlight it, and click new comment. The second is track changes. When you click track changes, your document will show every change you’ve made.

Add In Software

If you’d like additional writer’s features for Word, there is one add in program specifically made for MS Word and sold in the MS webstore. It very inexpensive and well worth the money, and it’s compatable with Vista. I have the program and am happy with it.

Here’s the link if you want to check it out.

There are other ways you can use MS Word, but it would take a book to list them all. If you know of a tip you can give, please comment.

MS Word Features For Writers: Template, Find & Replace, Bookmarks

Many writer’s use Microsoft Word, but they don’t use it to its fullest advantage. This week, I’ll post a series highlighting features that benefit writers in Microsoft Word and Microsoft One Note. I am giving instructions for Word and OneNote 2007, but many of these applications are in earlier versions as well.

Templates:

If you’re good at making your own templates, you can do that, but Microsoft has two templates you can download for free that will work for formatting your manuscripts. These templates work for Word 2003 and above.

Book Manuscript Download 
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC100830161033.aspx?CategoryID=CT101445101033

This book manuscript download will give you the basic format you need for your novel or non-fiction book. You may want to tweak it a little to fit you formatting needs. You can do that by selecting the style you want to change, then click modify style.

Short Story Download  
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC100830151033.aspx?pid=CT101172711033

You can use this format for short stories or magazine articles. Again you may want to tweak it to fit your needs by selecting the style you want to change, and then clicking modify.

Find and Replace:

Find and Replace is an important tool. Use it to find words that you use too often and words you need to eliminate. You can type ly in the find window to look for all the adverbs in you manuscript. You could also use it by typing all the words in the post, Words Writers Should Delete. It’s helpful for other things as well. If you decide to change a character’s name, you only need to type the name in the replace windows instead of looking through your entire document.

Caution: Don’t automatically replace something without going through and checking every instance. You might find it changes some words you didn’t intend to replace.

Bookmarks:

Some writers spend money on programs to separate scenes and chapters easily or they use excel charts to keep track of those scenes. All you really need to do is use the bookmark feature of your MS Word Program. At the beginning of every scene, click insert, then click bookmark. Type something to describe the scene, then click add. When you want to find that scene, click insert, bookmark, and go to the scene you want. 

This is also helpful when you’re editing. You can insert a bookmark labeled edit to show where you left off.

Another way to use bookmarks is to mark places you need to come back to and change when you do more research or if you need to look up a name or other information. That way, you don’t have to stop in the middle of the story to try to find out the name of a town.

If you’ve found other helpful ways to use templates, find & replace, and bookmarks, please comment so we can learn from each other. Wednesday I’ll feature more helpful tips about using Microsoft Word.

Those Pesky Ly Words

Adverbs are words that normally end in an ly and should usually be avoided when possible. I used two ly words in the last sentence; nobody can avoid them all. Many new writers delete all of their ly words but don’t use a stronger verb in its place. The reason to delete ly words is because stronger verbs can replace them. Here’s a list of a few strong verbs you can use to replace your weaker verbs and adverbs.

Walk:

slowly walked – sauntered, strolled, loped, moseyed, wandered, meandered

quickly walked – strode, darted, rushed, treaded, marched, advanced

Look:

angrily looked – glowered, glared

longingly looked – gaped, ogled, stared

quickly looked – glanced

Talk:

loudly talked – shouted, bellowed

softly talked – whispered, mumbled

Sit:

sat slowly – perched, rested, settled

sat quickly or angrily or clumsily – plopped, plodded

Whenever you see an ly word, look up the verb it describes in the thesaurus, and see if you can find a stronger verb to convey the same thing without the adverb.

Words Writers Should Delete

As writers, we love words. But there are some words that should rarely be used or are used in the wrong way. Here’s a list of words I search for in my WIP’s. I’ve used them in bad examples and showed what the sentence would look like if I delete the word. When I find these words, if I can, I hit delete.

Some

There were some flowers in the vase. There were flowers in the vase.

That

She hoped that he would ask her to marry him. She hoped he would ask her to marry him.

Over

Go over to the neighbor’s house. Go to the neighbor’s house.

Even

She even wanted to get some ice cream. She wanted to get some ice cream.

Down

He set down the book on the table. He set the book on the table.

Start

He started to run. He ran.

Begin, began, begun

He began to sing. He sang.

Almost

He was almost six feet tall. He was six feet tall.

Right

I’m doing that right now. I’m doing that now.

Such

She’s such a sweet person. She’s a sweet person. Better yet – She stayed with me until I felt better.

Quite

It’s been quite a day. It’s been a day.

About

Go to the store about 7:00. Go to the store at 7:00.

Then

Then he stormed out. He stormed out.

All

All of the buildings were torn down. The buildings were torn down.

Seem

He seemed like a gentleman. He was a gentleman. Better yet – He opened the door for me.

Very

The dog barked very loudly. The dog barked. (dogs don’t bark softly)

Been

I’ve been tired. I’m tired.

Only

He was only twelve years old. He was twelve years old.

Real

She was real ugly. She was ugly.

On

She sat on the chair. She sat.

Had

He had known she would leave him. He knew she would leave him.

Out

He ran out into the field. He ran into the field.

Off

He took his clothes off. He undressed.

Up

She glanced up at him. She glanced at him.

Back

I went back to the scene of the crime. I returned to the scene of the crime.

Being

I was being a silly. I was silly. Better yet – I stuck my tongue out and giggled.

Going

She was going to break up with him. She would break up with him.

Got

I have got to go. I have to go.

Was before ing

He was running in the race. He ran in the race.