Editing services

Using Lorraine's and Adrian's advice, you should always self-edit, making your ms as perfect as possible before sending it to anyone.

However, we all overlook mistakes that our eyes have floated over dozens of times without SEEING. I've noticed bloopers in published bestsellers. Mostly incoherences in plot, culture, or geography, rather than spelling mistakes. e.g. Virginia Woolf wrote about Xmas being in winter in the Southern Hemisphere; there's a date wrong in The Time Traveler's Wife; etc. Details that are hard to spot unless you're a pedant like me.

Hi Clare.

I strongly believe that the first thing a would-be author should tackle as part of the long, exhausting editing process is, A Thematic and Structural Edit.

It’s of the utmost importance to make sure the storyline and plot run smoothly, before tackling other necessary and basic editing tasks.

Make sure the themes of each chapter help to advance the plot and storyline.

Also that good ideas, ‘diamonds in the dust’, are not submerged amongst other details. Ideas that should be amplified and intensified.

Below is an editing checklist that readers are free to copy and edit to suit themselves.

EDITING CHECKLIST.

Medias Res.

1) Medias Res - You should steam in Medias Res on the first page. This can be a unique voice, a startling action, a bit of dialogue. Introduce the main character as early as possible.

Also, give the reader a puzzle to solve, something to worry about, something to read on to find out what happens next. It must start on page one, not page 3.

Ground the reader in the setting. The reader needs to know immediately WHEN and WHERE the story is taking place. Specific sensory details (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) should cue the reader to the exact location, even if you don’t specifically say where we are in the first couple paragraphs.

Plot

2) Plot - Cause and Effect - Effect and Cause.

EG: How the protagonist copes with adversity and reacts to each new challenge. The growth of the protagonist. How they learn from their experiences.

Storyline.

3) Storyline - Check for Weaknesses and Repetition.

'Shoes and Socks' problems – should information that is revealed to the reader in later chapters be placed much earlier?

Characters.

4) Characters – 5 or 6 rounded-characters is best, including the protagonist.

Use one-dimensional, flat-characters for minor roles.

What defines each individual character?

How is each character different from each of the other characters?

EG: One or more of, race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, morality, religion, belief system, occupation, wealth, poverty, and environment would help to define a character.

Focus the readers like and dislike in your characters.

How do the characters function: Elianor is sensible, Marianne is over-emotional, Macbeth is ambitious.

Sign-Posting.

5) Sign-Posting - No-one knows your story better than you do, but have you made it clear to the reader where the next part of the story is leading. Use a topic sentence as a signpost at the beginning of a paragraph, or a series of paragraphs.

Chapters.

6) Chapters – Are my chapter titles suitable?

Each chapter should be a self-contained, water-tight episode - one main theme per chapter.

Who or what is each chapter about?

Does my chapter build to a dramatic landmark event, and end with a cliff-hanger or hook?

Does my chapter link with the preceding and following chapter?

Dialogue.

7) Dialogue - Make sure that the dialogue between characters is relevant, that it advances the plot and storyline.

Only use stream-of-thought for secret, or private, or highly individual experience.

Do not use dialogue or streams-of-thought to explain to the reader what is obvious to the characters. It’s a lazy way to convey information.

The reader should be drip-fed information and left to work out what will happen.

It is vitally important to have your characters talk to each other.

Use characters’ streams of thought to let people know their inner world; perhaps reveal things that would not be revealed in any other way.

What did your characters, think, see, hear, smell, taste or feel.

Is my dialogue speakable?

Does it make sense when spoken aloud?

Streams of Thought – Do my streams-of-thought make sense when spoken aloud?

Descriptions.

8) Descriptions – There should be something filmic on every page. Vivid descriptions, but not too long that they kill the flow and pace of the storyline.

Settings.

9) Settings – Settings have to be generally motivated and have a strong purpose. What role does each setting play in my novel?

Style.

10) Prose - Does my prose flow when spoken aloud. Does it have Pace? Have I written in the active-voice? Writing in the active-voice makes for forcible writing. Passive writing is acceptable but should be used sparingly.

I highly recommend would-be authors download a kindle copy of, The Elements of Style by Strunk jnr. 99p well spent.

Basic Tasks.

11) Fix clunky sentences.

12) Cut superfluous text - Every-Word-Must-Earn-Its-Keep.

13) Grammar.

14) Punctuation.

FAMOUS AUTHOR’S ADVICE

Henry James: Dramatize, dramatize, dramatize. Add as much credible drama and suspense as possible.

Ruth Padell: Show Don’t Tell. Do not narrate when your characters can explain themselves and each other, by what they say, think and do.

Professor Walter Allen : Settings should be generally motivated.

What is the purpose of the setting?

What is its role in the novel?

Raleigh: Good novelists are great novel readers.

James Patterson: Outline, outline, outline. Plan you novel. Have the beginning, middle and end. List your working chapter titles before you start writing.

FR and QD Leavis : The Function of characters, their roles in the novel should be made clear.

What is unique to each individual character?

Alain: (French Philosopher) An abstract style is always bad. Your sentences should be full of stones, metals, chairs, tables, animals, men and women.

I hope that helps.

Good luck.