So the other day I asked Twitter if anyone had writing questions they wanted answered in a blog post, and as expected, writers of Twitter came through with lots of great questions. The first one, was this:

This is a great question, and one that kind of ties into a big part of working a novel, namely, how do you know when you’re ready to submit?

This answer, of course, is going to vary writer to writer. But generally, my process looks like this:

If I didn’t have an agent, step ten would be to start querying. Basically, that’s the point where I say, “okay, I’ve made this as good as I can for now—it’s time to get some industry opinions.” That’s the point where I believe I’ve taken all the steps I can to make my work as good as it’s going to get for now.

While I personally never hired a freelance editor to work on my manuscripts (mostly because, to be completely transparent, I couldn’t afford it), I am, as most of you know, a freelance editor. So I’m very well aware that many writers work with freelance editors before querying—which is cool! As an editor, I do everything I can to point out the problem areas and make suggestions to help my clients better prepare their manuscripts for submission. Very rarely have I worked with a client where I thought they were already pretty much ready to go (I can think of maybe two or three cases total, in nearly a year of freelancing)—so I do think it can be helpful to work with an editor before you submit, if that’s something you can afford.

As a freelance editor, however, I always recommend working with critique partners and betas first, before you hire a freelance editor. There’s a ton you can learn from other writers—for free!—so that you get the basic stuff out of the way before you work with a professional. So if I were to work with a freelance editor, I’d personally make that my Step 10, before I sent the manuscript off to query.

Ultimately, here’s what you want to make sure you cover before you start querying:

The steps you take—and how many steps you take, and in what order—are going to vary both on your manuscript and your own process. I now take many more steps that I did years ago when I first started out—and it’s not a coincidence that my work has improved markedly since then. But what’s important is you’re honest with yourself about whether you’ve really done enough to get your manuscript ready—and when you reach that point, you take a deep breath, and let your work fly.

What steps do you take to make your manuscript query-ready?

Revising/editing, like writing, doesn’t have any one-size models. And often one has to try multiple approaches to find what works best for them, and for each piece. 

That being said, this is a great overview of one process that highlights how many drafts (and corresponding feedback on those drafts) are needed to get a piece, particularly a long-form piece, to a place where it’s ready to submit for representation/publication. It also is a fairly common process for many writers (with some variation) – meaning, always remember that ‘professional’ writers, your favorite writers, go through similar processes between their first and published drafts.

- O

Studying how to study

—Wrong Word affect/effect, lay/lie, sit/set, who/whom, toward/towards, etc.

—Vague Pronoun Reference Confusing: Bob annoyed Larry, but that didn’t stop him from asking for a meeting. Clear: Bob annoyed Larry, but that didn’t stop Larry from asking for a meeting.

—Lack of Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Frequently Disparaged: Everyone withdrew their money. Uncontroversial: Everyone withdrew his or her money. Uncontroversial: People withdrew their money.

—Missing or Unnecessary Capitalization Capitalize proper nouns: The names of things, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Lowercase common nouns: Descriptions, such as that famous bridge.

—Unnecessary Shift in Verb Tense Wrong: John Wilkes Booth barricaded the door while Lincoln is watching the play. Right: John Wilkes Booth barricaded the door while Lincoln watched the play.

—Sentence Fragments Sentence fragments aren’t always wrong, but don’t use them accidentally.

Fragments: Because she was late. And I held the door.

—Monotonous Sentence Structure Monotonous: We were late. I called the office. Bob answered the phone. Bob told Sue. Sue stalled the investors. Better: I called the office because we were late. Bob answered the phone and told Sue, who stalled the investors.

—Adjective Drift Confusing: The property has seasonal creeks and trail access. Clear: The property has trail access and seasonal creeks.

—Unnecessary Adverbs and Prepositions Bloated: I was very angry that Bob sat down on the wet paint. Better: I was furious that Bob sat on the wet paint.

—Parallelism Errors Not Parallel: Kids like singing, chatting, and check their phones. Parallel: Kids like singing, chatting, and checking their phones.

—Passive Voice Passive voice isn’t wrong, but active sentences are often better.

Passive: The bell was rung by zombies. Active: Zombies rang the bell.

—“There Are” Sentences You can often improve on sentences that start with There are.

Not great: There are usually 54 cards in a deck. Better: A deck usually has 54 cards.

—Jargon Jargon: You can often improve on expletive sentences. More Accessible: You can often improve on sentences that start with There are.

—Missing Comma After Introductory Element Wrong: In the past we bought vinyl records. Right: In the past, we bought vinyl records.

—Unnecessary Comma Wrong: Bob likes pandas, and visits the zoo often. Right: Bob likes pandas and visits the zoo often.

—Comma Splice Wrong: I ate cake, I played games. Right: I ate cake, and I played games. Right: I ate cake and played games.

—Run-On Sentences Wrong: I ate cake I played games. Right: I ate cake, and I played games. Right: I ate cake and played games.

—Missing Comma in a Compound Sentence Wrong: All my friends came over for my birthday Tuesday and Bobby visited me the next day. Right: All my friends came over for my birthday Tuesday, and Bobby visited me the next day.

—Missing Comma with a Nonrestrictive Element Wrong: Shoes which are worn on your feet come in many styles. Right: Shoes, which are worn on your feet, come in many styles.

—Mechanical Problems with Quotations In the U.S., periods and commas go inside the closing quotation mark. Semicolons, colons, and dashes go outside the closing quotation mark. The position of question marks and exclamation points varies: They stay with their question or exclamation.

Correct: She yelled, “Help!” I won a copy of “Wrecking Ball”! She asked, “Are you hungry?” Did he just ask, “Are we in Hungary?”

—Quotation Marks for Emphasis Wrong: “Free” soda on Saturdays. Right: Free soda on Saturdays.

—Apostrophe Errors Nouns take apostrophes to become possessive. Pronouns don’t. It’s means “it is” or “it has.” Its is the possessive form of it. Acronyms, initialisms, and years don’t take apostrophes to become plural (CDs, 1980s).

—Unnecessary or Missing Hyphen Don’t hyphenate phrasal verbs.

Wrong: Log-in to your account. Right: Log in to your account.

Do hyphenate compound adjectives. These mean different things: silver jewelry cart and silver-jewelry cart.

—Spelling Errors Remember to run a spellcheck. It’s obvious but easy to forget.

—Search for these words and phrases to do a quick check: there are, it is, its, it’s, your, you’re, their, and they’re.

[SOURCE]

Everything We Know About...Editing!

Are you tackling a writing project that isn’t a brand-spanking new novel during Camp NaNoWriMo? Good news! We’re compiling lists of everything we know about nonfiction, editing, and scripts. We revisit editing while it’s fresh in our minds from the “Now What?” Months below:

You get to the part of the novel where you think to yourself, “what now? How can I make it even better?” Well, that’s a sign for the best part to happen—the editing and revision process! Here are resources that can help you edit those inconsistent story lines and cut out those awkward scenes.

The Joys of Editing

The Steps to Editing and Revision

Keep These In Mind When You Edit

As long as you have these resources, you’re well on your way to building an awesome book.

— Wendy

Rephrasing to Remove Unwanted Words

This is a question of word choice, which falls under the jurisdiction of style. While I am hesitant to influence your writing style, I will show you a few examples of how I might reword the phrases you provided.

'he got back up'

'it got darker'

Sometimes all it takes is a slight shift of focus. I observe that it got darker, for example, but that wasn’t all that happened. A character’s eyes need to adjust, maybe, so I could slant my description to include that. I could talk about night spreading or falling or blooming or twilight fading or ebbing or melting. 

I just figure out what I want to say very generally then rework that phrasing until it suits my style, the mood of my scene, my character’s voice, etc. Easy peasy. All it takes is practice and lots of it. 

And these sorts of things are relatively easy to change during the editing process. While I’m writing along, if I notice that I’m not particularly happy with my wording (like “it got darker”), I make a note to change it later and keep going. First drafts don’t have to be perfect. That’s sort of the point!

Thanks for your question, and I hope this helps!

-C

EDIT: Obviously, you don’t need to embroider every phrase. Not everything needs editing. This post was intended to help rework phrases you may be unhappy with, not to encourage you to make a mountain out of every molehill, so to speak.

O also weighed in on this:

You could join it with another sentence, such as:

You could have just changed “it got darker” to “it darkened” or “the sky darkened” right away, of course. Personally, though, I prefer the cadence of the sentence when coupled with the begonias and the search for the contact lens.  Similarly, you could replace something like “we got sick after eating at that Tex-Mex place,” try “that Tex-Mex place made us sick.” (Of course, you’ve now shifted more of the blame onto the Tex-Mex place. It hasn’t been proved that the Tex-Mex was the sickening agent, but it’s possible. Changing “got” in this way can often rearrange responsibility in your sentence; be careful of this.) 

So basically, read what you wrote, and see if you can do it in a different way. Sometimes you won’t be able to. But thinking about the verb you’re using coupled with some sentence rearranging will help you escape from most of these holes. (Please note that we could have said “will “get” you out of these holes.) One more thing, related to the word “got.” (This is a pet peeve of O’s and is only peripherally related to the conversation.) Saying “I’ve got two jars of sauce” is not correct. What you are saying there is “I have got two jars of sauce.” Just say “I have two jars of sauce.” 

We hope this post GOT you out of a hole.

- O

Beginning the awesome journey of revision

When is the best time to start revising a manuscript? Largely, usually, most of the time, after the last word of the story has been typed or written. Some writers need to edit as they write, and as long as it isn’t inhibiting actual progress of the word count, this is totally okay. Editing while writing can help more than hurt. But if you allow yourself to start revising before the story’s finished, and then consequently never finish, it might be because your stream of thought is being attacked by your critical eye. It’s similar to the difference between reading for pleasure and reading critically and analytically. Writing because you love writing should always come first. Writing because you want to write well comes after. Being hyper critical as you write instead of after you’ve already written can really hinder your writing process. It’s the difference between, “Everything I write sucks” and “I don’t even care if it sucks, I’ll make it better when I’m done,” and it can really get to you. This is why it’s important to keep the writing process and the revising process separate. Here are a few tips on how to tackle revising, whether you’re still writing or finished:

Additional stuff and stuff:

As always, good luck!

How to Edit Your Own Writing

by Caroline McMillan

Like most newspaper reporters, I got into the biz because a) I love writing and b) I’m pretty good at it. But it’s a sobering profession. You file your masterpiece, only to find your editor thinks it’s two dozen “tinks” shy of publishable. Repeat this scenario a couple hundred times, and you’ll find you’ve grown some thick skin. You’ve also gotten pretty darn good at self-editing. So, I’m here to impart some wisdom on the art of quickly perfecting your own work—how to hone, trim, and morph clumsy words and phrases into a clear, concise message that will wow your audience.

It could be a company memo, a PowerPoint presentation, an email, or a report—but no matter the medium, these quick editing skills will always come in handy. Some other bonuses of good self-editing skills: People are less likely to misunderstand you, and bosses and peers will pay more attention to the meat of your message.

So here we go. Let’s say you’re working on a personal assessment for your annual performance review. You’ve written the first draft, but you want to make sure it’s in perfect condition before you submit it. Here’s your game plan:

Read More

Drafting Major Plot Points and "Filler"

You could try writing the major plot points first and then connecting them later. If it doesn’t work, then you could try writing straight through chronologically. I think both methods are valid.

What I disagree with here is the word filler. KeyboardSmashWriters has a great article on this word. I think you should read it. Basically, if any part of your story is filler, get rid of it. If you think it’s boring to write, your audience will likely think it’s boring to read.

You might also find these articles useful:

Thank you for your question! If you have any comments on this post or other questions about writing, you can message us here! 

-C