Hey Story Crafters,
Itâs been a while! During the time The Writerâs Corner was on break, I went to Busch Gardens to visit their Christmas Town, celebrated a birthday, ate lots of good food, and put up Christmas decorations. And, ate a lot of pumpkin pie. đ
Thank you to my current subscribers, and to all of the writers who visit The Writerâs Corner! Your support helps me stay motivated to keep this newsletter going. If there are certain topics youâd like this newsletter to cover, mention them in the comments below or contact me directly!
Iâve been back in the office this past week, getting back into the swing of things. NaNoWriMo ended, and though I didnât participate, I did get a fair amount of writing done. Congrats to those of you who participated, regardless of whether you reached your writing goal(s) or not! đ„ł
If you feel comfortable doing so, feel free to share your NaNoWriMo experience in the comments!
If youâre still working on your NaNoWriMo project, thatâs great! You get to keep writing and building your story. I encourage you to do so, while the project is still fresh in your mind and youâve got the writing momentum pushing your creativity forward.
If youâve finished your project during NaNoWriMo, congratulations! Youâve accomplished a writing goal in a month that not every writer (including me, right now) is able to meet. You deserve to celebrate!
As part of your celebration, put your completed!manuscript awayâtuck it into a folder, a desk drawer, somewhere you wonât see it and be tempted to read it. The first step to self-editing, even if youâd rather not think about it yet, is to put some distance between yourself and your story. It may be tempting to some writers to start editing right away, but doing so can actually work against you. Right now, youâre too close to your story. You may think otherwise, but you currently donât have the objectivity to approach your writing with an editorâs eyeâso everything in your manuscript sounds great, everything is great and completely relevant to the story, and nothing needs to be changed.
If you try to start self-editing now, you might miss awkward transitions or pacing, or inconsistent character development. You wonât notice the areas that might need improvement, until youâve spent some time away from your story. By getting some distance from your story, you switch from being a âwriterâ to being a âreader.â As a âreader,â youâll notice where other readers might get confused, or feel unsatisfied with your story, and make edits as needed.
While you spend time away from your manuscript, you can look into and review resources for self-editing.
Some posts from The Writerâs Corner you may find helpful include:
Editing Tip #4: Consistency in Characters
Relationship Mapping Part 2
Editing Dialogue
Using Descriptive Language
Letâs Talk Beats
Considering Chapters and Chapter Transitions
Other resources I find helpful for editing, and that you might find helpful as well, include:
Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing Youâll Ever Need by Jessica Brody
The Art of Fiction by James Gardner
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to edit yourself into print, 2nd Edition by Renni Browne & Dave King
The first three books are craft books, but they offer writing craft insights that you can still consider during the editing phase.
Once youâve finished self-editing your manuscript to the best of your ability, I highly encourage you to hire an editor to polish your manuscript further, whether youâre planning to self-publish or pursue traditional publishing. I offer developmental editing, line editing, and copyediting services (and a combined line editing + copyediting service) to independent authors and querying authorsâmainly fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror authors. You can learn more about my services in the Letâs Talk Editing, Take #2 post and on my website.
You can also search for editors (and other publishing services) through The Editorial Freelancers Association, ACES: The Society for Editing, and the Editors of Color databases.
If you have any questions or concerns about self-editing, donât hesitate to reach out. Until next week!
Best,
Leah
Interested in learning more about me, and the kind of energy Iâll bring to a writer-editor relationship? Subscribe to this newsletter (itâs free!). Youâll also get a writing resource on relationship mapping, and a special offer!
You can also check out the archives.
Are you searching for an editor to work with on a completed (or soon-to-be-completed) manuscript? Get in touch! Iâd love to hear about your project(s). Iâm looking to work with authors of:
Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Science Fiction
Horror