Wednesday Writerly Ways~ Editing

This is a subject that can't be stressed enough. While I edit other people's books and edit my own fairly thoroughly, I still find mistakes long after a book goes to press. Whether it's my own work or someone else's.

Even with a half a dozen or two dozen eyes on the thing, there are still mistakes. It irritates me to no end. Even traditionally published books have errors. This is mainly a cost saving method after the galleys. There are a limited number of passes they[publishers] are willing to pay for.

In traditional publishing, your manuscript passes through a dozen set of hands before it actually goes to print. In my mind, surely one of those sets of eyes should have caught the error that my eyes keep tripping over when reading, right? Nope, the eyes belong to humans and humans are inherently flawed.

The same is true for indie published manuscripts.

It's our flaws that makes us unique, isn't it? Sometimes this is correct, but not where writing is concerned. Your writing should be flawless. So how do you get there from where you are now?

This is not an easy thing to do. Most of us have a problem getting the straight lined approach to this problem so we hire editors, have readers who will honestly point out these issues, and pray a lot. We take additional English classes. We try everything we know to do, but still the path to editing looks more like this. =====>

I don't know about you, but I've got enough gray hairs and bald spots from the editing process.  But still, I go through the motions of thee editing passes, critiques, beta readers, and my own final editing pass before submitting a work for publication.  As pain stakingly as I try...Still there are errors.

Some things to remember when editing...

# ONE

NOT...

# TWO

 Is easier to erase than...

 

#THREE 

is not as colorful, but is inherently better than...

 #FOUR

 MOST IMPORTANTLY

Keep writing and loving the Lord.