How to See What's Really There (not what you think is there) when Editing the Little Picture

I've addressed tricks for seeing what's actually on the page rather than what's usually there when you're editing the "big picture". Now it's time to cover the tricks to seeing what's actually there—not what you think is there—when editing the "little picture".

In other words, how do you see your own typos?

There are several methods, and some work better than others—but the best one for you will depend on you.

Also, bear in mind: Even with these methods, it will take more work for you to see your own typos than it will for someone else. You also have to know what you're looking at to know if it's correct.

But once you know what you're doing (or if, say, you're writing for school or work and must edit yourself), these methods will help you find your own errors insofar as you're able.

• Wait before editing your text.

Wait between finishing a manuscript and starting the edit. Ideally, the wait's long enough that you'll have completely forgotten what you intended to write. The length of the original piece of writing, how long you spent writing it, and your own memory will influence how long you'll have to wait for this one to be effective.

This is why a writer might finish a novel and wait a year or more before looking at it again.

• Re-read your text.

The trick to re-reading effectively is to change the format of what you're writing. If you wrote by hand, read it on a computer or tablet screen (and a sans-serif font is best). If you wrote it on the computer, read it on paper or your E Ink e-reader (and a serif font is best).

If you must stick to working all on computer, due to time or material constraints, change the font and change the margin.

• Read your text aloud.

This means you read it aloud yourself—and yes, mumbling counts.

Tongue-twisters are flags for confusing sentences. And you might be surprised how much typos jump out when you're trying to say them.

• Have your text read to you.

While it's possible that you might find someone willing to read your story for you, this one's usually done by having your computer, tablet, or e-reader read your text to you.

Even with synthesized voices, once you get used to how they pronounce things, you can "hear" commas, periods, etc., and find lots of typos. (And if you lose track of a sentence being said…that's probably a confusing sentence that could use revision.)

• Read your text backward, word by word or sentence by sentence.

This one is all typo check, since you can't evaluate paragraphs this way.

I've only ever done it for an essay, and I didn't find it worth my time. If you're particularly prone to typos, particularly of types that your spell checker won't catch, then you might find the sentence by sentence version worthwhile to watch for homophones.

• Use editing software.

Be warned that grammar checker can be useful if you know what you're doing, but if you don't—avoid listening to it. It'll often auto-choose the wrong subject and verb in your sentence, or think that you're using a word as a different part of speech than what it actually is.

There are also some programs designed with the sole purpose of editing, like AutoCrit, EditMinion, and Pro Writing Aid. (If you use Scrivener, check the Text Statistics for a window listing how many times you use each word, which is handy for finding words you overuse.)

There you have it: six (6) methods for finding your own typos and other "little picture" errors when microediting.

What's your preferred method for finding "little picture" errors? Do you have another technique to add here?

—Misti

How to See What's Really There (not what you think is there) when Editing the Big Picture

A few times, now, I've mentioned that there are all sorts of "tricks" to being able to see what's actually on the page instead of what you think you put there.

So what are some of those tricks when you're macro editing, editing the big picture in your story?

• Write (or notecard) your story outline or synopsis.

Yep, you can write your outline after you write the book. Why would you do that, you ask?

Reason: It's easier to analyze a sentence than an entire scene.

How to do it: One sentence per scene. That's the key, see. Write no more than a sentence per scene. Write no less than a sentence per scene. If you cannot write that single sentence per scene, either nothing's happening and the scene needs some revision, or you're getting too wrapped up in the details. (Tip: drop all adjectives and adverbs unless it's something like "Jane learns Jill is dead", wherein dead is an adjective.)

When done with the writing, eye those sentences with an eye for 2 things:

1. Does each one have a change?
2. Does each one connect to the ones on either side of it?

No? Why not? (Maybe you wrote the wrong sentence, for example—but most likely, that's a warning sign.

Unfortunately, outlines and notecards are extremely popular at other stages in your writing—like, say, setting all these scenes up in advance.

I say "unfortunately" because that means I can't really find the links I'm looking for, though here's one author who uses this method.

In the past few months, I know I found a fantastic blog post or three about how to phrase those analyses sentences, I think on Janice Hardy's blog…but I've changed computers recently and lost my bookmarks. (Jami? Somebody? Link help, please!)

Personally, I'm a fan of using notecards in a method fashioned after Holly Lisle's methods: Write each scene on a notecard color-coded to indicate how much work is needed. My "color coding" = highlighter or marker along the top edge of a white notecard. I also make a key card for that stack. Reason for the white card, color on top: I can look at the top edge and see how much work the book will need, but I also can read the cards easily—due to a quirk in my learning style, color hinders me.

(As an aside, Holly Lisle's book Mugging the Muse is $0.99 well spent.)

• Check your story against the a formula.

Popular ones include Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! (spreadsheet here, made by Elizabeth Davies) and Larry Brooks's Story Engineering (spreadsheet here, made by Jami Gold—who has also combined those two.)

Some authors even develop their own for particular stories of theirs for their own genre.

You don't have to use a formula—I personally chose not to follow one with A Fistful of Fire, because whenever I looked into making it more…"conventional", I would've had to make changes that would've hurt what I'd meant it to be.

However, it's highly likely that I unconsciously applied some formula to that story. I have difficulty analyzing plot events and their purpose, but I've started checking A Fistful of Earth against some of those formulas and am finding it to be pretty close.

The book-based formulas make it easy: Download or create a spreadsheet for it, plug in your word count, see if the required thing happens at the required page (or ± a few pages), and if they don't match up, determine if you want to change it or not—because formulas exist for a reason, so you need to understand the formula to understand when and if you should break it.

(So in case you're wondering, yes, I'm well aware that I broke a lot of pacing "rules" with A Fistful of Fire. It also tends to be my most popular title, so evidently I pulled it off.)

• Write your blurb and tagline.

Your blurb shows up in things like your query letter or cover copy, and your tagline can be a pithy thing you'd want used on your cover or can be your elevator pitch. Writers like Janice Hardy and Jami Gold (and even Nathan have done such thorough jobs writing posts on how to do those things, that I just have to refer you to them:

• Janice Hardy's How to Write a Query (for your blurb)
• Janice Hardy's How to Write a Pitch line (for your tagline)
• Jami Gold's Ultimate Guide to Pitch Writing (for your blurb)

Personally, I prefer doing at least the blurb before I write the book, because I'm pretty much a panster, and writing those in advance helps me target what I want my story to be.

Do you have any techniques, examples, or resource links that you find particularly useful that you'd like to add? Which technique(s) sound or are most useful to you?

—Misti