Avoiding 19 Nervous Breakdowns
by Mark London
Most writers' first responsibility, when you think about it, is catching an editor's attention.
After it's caught, they not only have to keep it, but also develop a relationship that makes that editor their best friend.
An editor's worst nightmare is sitting at their desk, staring at a pile of unpolished manuscripts all doomed to fill up the circular file. Rejecting them all is the equivalent of a mass staff-firing!
So, polishing your work is necessary and there is a knack to successfully editing your own work. It is not an easy task and there is no room for slacking once the rough draft is finished.
To create polished final draft copy is a time-consuming and often frustrating affair. You have to question every aspect of what you've written.
Sentences, dialogue, characters, scenes, effects, content-flow, tension and transitions, to name just a few, have to be meticulously examined. You have to ask your work many hard questions and it has to have the correct answers every time.
First, take the manuscript and put it somewhere no one can find it and you won't be tempted to pick it up. Once a week or so has passed, sit down and read it all, but keep beside you this article you're reading. It contains the myriad nit-picking items that can turn mere writing into a well-wrought, riveting read.
The following questions must be asked in order to properly self-edit:
1) Have you identified and removed all unnecessary words?
2) Did you spell and grammar check all of the content?
3) From the first paragraph, does your writing hook the reader's attention?
4) Can you identify exactly where the story begins and where it ends (no, not normally the first and last pages)?
5) Does your story say exactly what you want said, or does it meander?
6) Can the story be summarized into a single sentence?
7) Have you removed all of the extraneous content to give it good pace (this is different than removal of unnecessary words)?
8) Do all of the characters have their own voices and agendas?
9) Are the characters in a constant state of tension during the telling of the story?
10) Have you added enough depth to each of the character's dialogue to make the character believable?
11) Do all the characters have maximum importance to create a spellbinding effect?
12) Is the bigger story reflected while delving into close-ups of individual characters?
13) Did each of your characters accomplish or say something significant by the end of the story?
14) Are your tenses correct and consistent?
15) Does the story "flow and show" (as it should) or have you written a "yell and tell?"
16) Does the overall story have tension and character conflict (verbal or otherwise)?
17) Do all scenes have beginnings, middles, and ends?
18) Are all scenes emotionally disparate, without repetition elsewhere in the story?
19) Have you written enough emotional force into every scene?
The dual bottom line: Does the content logically build and have transitions to keep the reader interested and not lost? Can it be understood by, and is it of interest to, the target audience?
Once you get through this process, you need to take your work to your personal proof-reader/editor, plus a writing group and a trusted, well-read friend. Give them copies and have each of them read and critique it for you. Regardless of all the things they find wrong with it (and they will), you'll find your hard work will not go unrewarded.
If your manuscript (and your ego) survives all of this analysis, you can be more confident that you have a marketable piece of writing sitting on your desk.
Next on your agenda is getting it placed on that editor's desk.
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About the Author:
Mark London is a Toronto based contract freelance writer and Associate Editor of Inkwell Newswatch Writers Ezine and Literary Journal www.fwointl.com/in.html who spends much of his time assisting writers' careers. For thousands of free writing resources he recommends using the Freelance Writing Organization International www.fwointl.com/ Signup is free and includes free software and ebooks. Resources include markets, contests, education, jobs, funding, and thousands of other links.