On Editing

I don’t often talk a whole lot about editing on here, largely because the focus of this blog is what I’ve read, but editing work feeds into that, too. After all, editing involves ‘reading’ a manuscript, though in a more active way than if I’m reading something something for pleasure. Still, I feel like the more I edit, the more I notice in published (or almost published, in the case of arcs) books the lack of editing.

This isn’t just a problem in self-published books, either. It can be evident in them, however what I tend to find is some self-published authors put a lot of care into making sure their book is as professional as it possibly can be. What I’ve noticed a lot of in recent years is a lack of this kind of care in traditionally published books. There are so many factors that go into why this is, but I thought for today’s post, I’d talk a little about what I pick up on as an editor and a reader, and hopefully any writers reading this might just learn a thing or two to help their own writing.

I’ve technically been editing since 2020, though before this I was an active member on Scribophile, an online writing group where you can post your work and get feedback. To post, you need karma points. To earn this, you have to critique the work of others. This remains, I feel, one of the best ways to improve your writing, if you’re willing to put the work in. Once you start seeing the ‘issues’ in someone else’s work, you start noticing it in your own, and the feedback from others can be incredibly valuable for improving your own work and identifying your common mistakes.

When I’m editing, I’m evaluating various areas as I read. On a micro level, I’m studying each sentence – checking for errors, seeing how the sentence reads, if it fits together, etc. On a macro level, I’m taking in the big picture, and I provide a reader report that talks about things such as Character, Plot, Pacing and more, broken down in chunks, but in a broader way than sentence-by-sentence.

Something I often try to do is ask questions. I’m not there to just adjust every little thing and rewrite sections for the author; when I’m editing, I’m editing, not writing. Instead, I try nudging the writer to consider what they’re doing and why. It’s not always that it needs to change, or there needs to be an on-the-page answer, but often we make choices in our writing that we’re barely even aware of, and what I hope to do is make the writer think about why they’re making that choice. It might be something like “why is this character acting like this when a minute ago they were thinking differently” or “why is this part in italics”, and so on.

There are plenty of writing tips on the internet and in various books, and there are certain things that crop up fairly often, mostly because they’re the kind of mistakes most writers make. The length of your story is going to impact how many characters you feature in detail – you can’t have a cast of 10+ in a short story, and though some writers can pull it off, having just one single character in a novel might just read strangely.

“Show, don’t tell” seems to be the cause of a lot of misconceptions. What’s important with show, don’t tell is that it doesn’t mean always show, never tell. It means where the story calls for it, really put the reader fully into the scene. Rather than telling us a character is embarrassed, show us through their facial expressions or body language. Don’t tell us that Sally told Frank about their next door neighbour’s cat getting into the bin; show us the conversation as they have it. There might be a scene where full dialogue isn’t called for, but it’s about finding a balance.

Adverbs are tricky – they are more telling than showing. Not to say never, ever use them – adverbs are used regularly, and that’s not a bad thing. But it’s, again, being aware of your choices. If you modify ‘said’ with an adverb, sometimes it can fall flat – rather than telling us ‘he said, angrily’, we should see his anger in the dialogue, body language, etc. So, rather than ‘he said, angrily’, maybe ‘”What did you do that for?” he snapped’, or ‘”What did you do that for?” His face flushed red.’ etc.

I really could go on! Ultimately, a manuscript will always have errors or areas that can be improved, but that’s where beta readers, critique partners and editors really prove their worth. With an objective view of the manuscript, it’s much easier to pick up on what doesn’t read quite right, and of course, highlight the areas the writer does do well in.

This is really surface level, but hopefully it’s given you something to consider for your own writing! And if you want to find out more about my editing services, you can check out the details here. Happy writing!