Editing

Hmmm...wish I knew about this approach earlier... Line Editing 101 - or Proof that I am a Masochist.

So, what is a line edit? First, when I line edit, I start at the end; at the very last sentence. The reason for this is I know what I’ve written. Could probably recite it in my sleep. So, if I begin at the start of the story, my brain falls into the rhythm of what I’ve already read more times than I care to count, and it ignores mistakes. My brain knows what should come next, so that’s what it often sees, even if that's not what's on the page. Starting with the last line of the story and working backward enables me to see the words and the punctuation clearly.

One sentence at a time, I search for grammar and syntax errors (I’ll get into this in more detail in a future article), rogue commas, run-on sentences, sentence and vocabulary variety, etc. By going one line at a time, in reverse, my brain can more easily address each sentence on its own. It doesn't see anything that isn't there.

Next, I make a list. I’m not even going to pretend this is fun. It’s tedious and I hate it, but I do it anyway. I note words that I repeat (and you do notice them while reading in reverse), unusual word choices, words I may have misused, and so on. I also note the pages these words appear on (easier to find later). I also make a list of characters. On this list I include names, descriptions and any other distinctive details about that character. Doesn’t matter how minor or if the character is only mentioned in passing. Sometimes I do this during outlining, and then I go back and check my info later, but most of the time, I leave this to the line editing stage.

But we’re not done with the lists yet. After I make those lists, I begin another with places, dates, times, addresses, mentions of products, such as vehicles, foods, etc., foreign languages, actual historical events/details, and anything else I may have messed up during my research stage, so I can fact check once I’ve finished editing. For example, I had a kid wearing Spider Man pajamas in a time period when such pajamas did not exist (my story took place a couple years before they were available). Crazy, right? I also changed the name of the place I set my story in THREE TIMES in another manuscript. How does that even happen?

Now, when you’re done, you’ll have caught most mistakes (or should have) and you’ll have these pages of lists that you probably want to burn. Don't do that yet. Using those lists, I correct issues with character names, such as different spellings (Once I named a guy Carl at the start and started calling him Joe half-way through. I know. WTF, right?) You might find you cited little Martha as 12 years old on page 8, and then suddenly, she’s 16 on page 200, but only a year has passed in the plot. I mean, get it together! You might also find you’ve used the word “just” 2066 times. That’s just a little ridiculous. So you’ll have to go back through and delete about 2060 of those. (Use the “find” feature in Word or whatever writing software you use to quickly annihilate such heinous mistakes.)

It's not that I don't do a line edit -- I do, and I hire people to do it. But I do it differently.
I do it as I'm writing the thing. In stages. Such as I get stuck. I stop. And line edit the part I've already written. The problem with doing it my way -- is by the time I've finished, the first half has been edited to death, but the last half...well, it really really wasn't. I will revise when the thing is over and done with and edit again. I tend to edit and revise about five or six times. And rewrite.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And I tend to see all the errors. This post? I edit as I write it. My eyes scan back and forth over the sentence as I'm writing. If I miss an error? And see it later? It will drive me crazy. This happens a lot at work -- I'll revise a letter five times, send it out, and I got the damn date wrong. It's particularly bad when I'm writing fast or doing more than one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is the devil that corrupts the details.