Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Editing Tips

When it comes to editing, I think there are a lot of people in the same boat as I am. I can write and I think I'm fairly good at it, even though there are others who will disagree, and that's okay. There are many authors whose writing styles I don't like, but that's neither here nor there.

The boat many of us are in is the editing/revisions boat.

And for some of us, I think it's sinking fast.

When we were in school, e were taught to read and write. We learned grammar rules. We wrote papers on various topics. But when I think back, was I really taught to revise a paper--to edit it for grammar errors?

I don't remember being taught to really, truly edit a paper the way we need to edit a story. It was more topical stuff that I was told to check for to make the paper appear polished. So now, I'm having to teach myself how to edit my manuscripts. Not easy. If you're like me, you're reading various blogs and books on how to edit and what to edit.

Here are a few blogs I've come across that might help you:

10 Functions of the Commas at www.dailywritingtips.com

11 Compound Word Errors that Might Make You Look Like a Numbskull at www.copyblogger.com.

A Proofreading Checklist: What to look for before calling it done at www.melissabreau.com.

We're Ready for Revision Pre-Flight: Top 10 Self-Editing Tips at blog.janicehardy.com.