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Five Key Steps to Editing Your Manuscript

Learning to effectively edit your own work is more important than ever. You're not only competing with other writers in a tight market, you're competing for an editor's valuable time. Good plotting and radiant talent won't mean much if it's obvious that your book needs a lot of copy editing. Publishing houses are relying less on in-house editors and more on freelance editors to edit books. (Translated: We don't want to spend a bunch of money on editing.) While becoming a better self-editor can certainly put you ahead in the publishing game, learning to proofread and copy edit your own work will accomplish an even greater task: Improve your skills as a writer. Five key steps can help you effectively edit your own work:

* Write first, edit later.

* After the book is completed, distance yourself from the work.

* Allow an objective third party to read the complete first draft.

* Concentrate on the "big" problems first (weaknesses in plot and characterization, consistency issues, pacing, dialogue) and work down to the "little" problems (grammar, awkward phrases, sentence structure, word choices).

* Use good reference materials.

Write first, edit later. Don't edit as you write or you'll drive yourself crazy. If you participate in critique groups, I recommend not correcting a chapter before writing the next one. Keep your notes for each chapter and, if you want, write as if you made the corrections. When it comes time to re-write the book, you'll be able to better judge the suggestions that will and won't work.

Distance yourself from the book. When you've finished the book, put it away. Don't look at it and try not to think about it. (Okay, if you think of some brilliant idea, make a note, but don't look at the work.) I recommend waiting at least two weeks before beginning edits. You'll be surprised what you notice about your own writing-and the book's structure-when you don't think about it for a while. Waiting two weeks to work on your book can be excruciating, so this is a good time to start on your next project. Working on something new will help you to not think about re-writing your finished novel.

Allow someone to read the whole manuscript. Give your book to someone you trust to be honest and fair about your work. The person reading your book doesn't necessarily have to be another writer. (Writers, no matter how hard they try, will always offer advice and criticism based on their own writing preferences.

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