Tips For Editing Your Work:
- PROOFREAD YOUR WORK – there is no way that you can edit your book if you do not go back and reread your work. Your first version of your work isn’t, in a million years, going to be the best version.
- Authors often change their ideas during writing their book (like a name of a character or a plot change), you need to ensure that it’s consistent the entire way through.
- Check spelling. Spellcheck won’t pick up on all words e.g. misuse of the words they’re, there and their or if you confuse words like herd and heard.
- It may sound basic, but make sure you use capitals properly. This means all names for characters and places need to be capitalised. However, you do not use capitals after speech e.g. “What a wonderful book!” she said.
- Make sure you vary your sentence length and how you start the sentence, don’t start with “I did…”, “she did…” or “he did…” multiple times. Nor do you want just simple, just compound or just complex sentences.
- As you read back through your work you’ll notice if you’re repeating any words. This includes repeated words in one paragraph or a common word you use throughout the entire novel.
- Be ruthless when cutting – if you don’t need it, cut it.
- You don’t need to describe every action your character does; keep all descriptions concise. This includes descriptions of places.
- Professional authors usually cut most adverbs from their work.
- All your characters need to be individuals with different personalities. Not all your friends talk and behave in the same way and nor should your characters.
