Editing When You Can't Afford an Editor

 

   So, if you're like me, and you don't have money to actually pay for an editor, you might go through it yourself a couple times, and then have a few friends go through it. I've heard a lot of people say you shouldn't edit your own book, but... I do it anyway. *cough cough*

   When I finish one of my books, I'll set it aside for a while, which is what I've heard a lot of other writers do, and then come back to it in a couple of weeks. One thing I have also heard is that just doing a single read through before you edit, but writing down notes, is a good thing also, so I'm going to be trying that with the book that I just finished. :)

   When I start the editing process, I'll just read through, pick out things I don't like, I want to change, things that aren't right with the story, mixed Point of Views (which I hate with a passion), and then typos.

   I'll also pick a couple writing friends and ask if they can go through my manuscript also, and make lot's of scribbles in it. (I feel so professional saying manuscript.) XD

   By doing this, it's not super hard to edit, it's just time consuming to really read what I've already read ten billion times while writing it, and also trying to pick out things that don't work.

   So, tips? Um.... Don't settle for 'good enough', would be my first thing to tell you. I unfortunately did that with Evidence for Angels, and I found a couple typos now and then in the finished copy, and I desperately wished that I had not settled for good enough. I should've waited for 'perfect'. If that's even possible. ;P

   A website that you could try is Hemingway Editor. I've put my writing into this website, and they will point out adverbs, passive voice, phrases that could have a simpler alternative, sentences that are hard to read, and sentences that are very hard to read.

   I still don't know a whole lot about using it, but it seems like a really neat place to go to so far. :D

   Welp, that's how I do my editing, and then I just go over, and over, and over, and over my book until I feel it's ready. Which is what I'm going to do from now on. ;D




                                                                       Keep writing!