So You Want to Be an Editor?

You’re a good writer. Heck, maybe even a great writer. You have a finished manuscript that you can’t wait to self-publish on Amazon, and a cover designer you talked into working for free, simply because she’s a friend of a friend of your cousin. All that’s left is to sit down at your computer, large coffee in one hand, Netflix on mute, and pull up Track Changes. Right?

See, this is where so many authors go wrong. You may be the best writer since Charles Dickens, but that doesn’t make you a great editor. You may have an eagle eye for spotting mistakes in others’ work, but the ugly truth is, the hardest mistakes to pick out are our own.

I cannot understate the value of hiring a competent editor to look over your book. That being said, I understand that some of us don’t have the funds to be dishing out hundreds of dollars on Paypal, or the time to be vetting editors on Upwork. If this is you, and you’re convinced that self-editing is the right path to success, then do yourself a favor and take the time to read this blog post.

This month, I’m going to highlight a few tricks to help you train your eyes—and your brain—to read like an editor. But first, let’s put your eagle eye to the test, shall we?

Take a look at the excerpt below, and count how many mistakes you find. Then, scroll down to see how your editing skills measure up.

 

Excerpt:

She hasn’t come yet.

Why hasn’t she come yet?

Its 5:00. Most families on are street are having dinner right now. Mrs. Clearwater has already around the block with Penny, who wasted no time peing on every leaf, stick, and exposed rock this side of Bradley Ave. Dariens’ skateboard laid wheels-up in the middle of the Tessler’s driveway, because no ten year old boy has the time to clean up his toys when a full chicken dinner rises from the table, calling to him.

So why hasn’t she come?

As if she can hear my critique, Dawn appears at the top of the hill and begins to glide toward us with the customary slowness of a mail lady carrying life-altering documents in a parcel bag resting snugly in the passenger seat behind her.

I leapt from the coach and wrench open the door, not bothering to clothes it behind me.

This shouldn’t take long.

I can hear the mumbled shouts of my parents, wondering why the house has suddenly been blasted with artic temperatures. Its almost the end of March, but here in springfield, there is no such thing as spring.

Dawn pulls the mail car up to the curb. Our house is convienently located on the right side of the cul de sack, so she doesnt have to double-back for us

This should be it. My day of reckoning.

(End of Excerpt)

 

So how did you do? How many errors did you find?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: There are 18 mistakes in this excerpt.

Surprised? Let me break it down for you.

 

Revised Excerpt:

She hasn’t come yet.

Why hasn’t she come yet?

It’s 5:00. Most families on our street are having dinner right now. Mrs. Clearwater has already been around the block with Penny, who wasted no time peeing on every leaf, stick, and exposed rock this side of Bradley Ave. Darien’s skateboard lies wheels-up in the middle of the Tessler’s driveway, because no ten-year-old boy has the time to clean up his toys when a full chicken dinner rises from the table, calling to him.

So why hasn’t she come?

As if she can hear my critique, Dawn appears at the top of the hill and begins to glide toward us with the customary slowness of a mail lady carrying life-altering documents in a parcel bag resting snugly in the passenger seat beside her.

I leap from the couch and wrench open the door, not bothering to close it behind me.

This shouldn’t take long.

I can hear the mumbled shouts of my parents, wondering why the house has suddenly been blasted with arctic temperatures. It’s almost the end of March, but here in Springfield, there is no such thing as spring.

Dawn pulls the mail car up to the curb. Our house is conveniently located on the right side of the cul de sac, so she doesn’t have to double-back for us.

This should be it. My day of reckoning.

(End of Revised Excerpt)

 

If you didn’t perform as well as you might have expected to, don’t stress. All editors can improve their attention to detail over time. Now that you’ve put your editing skills to the test, let’s strengthen them with a few pointers.

 

 

Tips to Read like an Editor:

1. Read the excerpt aloud. Our eyes often zip through information faster than our brain can process it, which can lead us to miss critical errors. When we take the time to pronounce each word, we are allowing our brains to catch up to our mouths. You’d be surprised how many more mistakes you can spot by just following this one tip.
2. Invest in a good style guide. So you don’t have the money to hire an editor? Then this is the next best thing. Style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook are full of helpful advice on matters like punctuation, capitalization, and more. You can use them like a dictionary; whenever you’re unsure about something you’ve written, pause and double-check by locating the correct section in your style guide. Of course, this requires you to notice the possible error in the first place, so make sure you combine this tip with the other six I’ve plotted out for you.
3. Do not edit for more than five hours per day. This is more a personal standard than a professional one, but in my experience, I’ve found that five hours is about the length of time I can be productive before my eyes start seeing stars and my brain starts contemplating what year it is. If you want to produce solid work, do not rush through your manuscript. And if you want to be able to write more books in the future, do not burn out your best assets.
4. Keep a list of keywords. Have you ever read a book where the main character’s brother suddenly goes from Johnny to Jimmy? This is an embarrassing problem, but one that I’ve seen multiple times. Before you begin editing, jot down the names of all your characters, as well as major settings, traits, or unique words that spellcheck might have inadvertently changed on you over the course of your manuscript. Which brings me to number five.
5. Do not rely on spellcheck!! This is probably the best piece of advice I can give you. Spellcheck is not always your friend. In fact, spellcheck almost always changes the spelling of my last name. It’s infuriating. The bottom line is, spellcheck only confirms that the word you’ve typed is in the dictionary; it cannot tell you if the word you’ve typed has been used correctly.
6. Remember your past mistakes. You know what your grammar weaknesses are. And if you don’t, shoot me an email and I’ll tell you what they are. There/their/they’re; its/it’s; what the heck is the difference between an em dash and an en dash? Whatever your kryptonite is, any time you see it appear in your writing, stop. Check yourself. Then, after you’re sure you’ve resolved any mistakes, move on.
7. Ask a friend to look over your book. Like I mentioned earlier, we are horrible at evaluating our own writing with unbiased scrutiny. So call upon your favorite English major friend and have he or she give your book a once-over! You’ll be amazed at what they find.

 

That’s all for this month! Feel free to leave comments and questions below, and let me know how you performed in my editing test!

As always, thanks for reading!