By:
Heather R. Todd
Without
a heavy dose of manuscript editing, your book isn’t ready for prime time.
Congratulations!
You are one of the thousands of writers from around the world who succeeded in
the NaNoWriMo challenge.
Determined
writers like you endured the arduous National Novel Writing Month in hopes of
producing a story that has been begging to get out. As the month draws to
close, you are now sitting back looking at 20, 30, maybe 50,000 words that make
up your story.
Good
job!
Before
getting down to the nitty gritty of preparing your book for publishing, here
are a few pointers to make sure that your first draft gets the most out of
manuscript editing.
Spell Check
Go
ahead and do a spell check if you haven’t already.
It
is amazing how many words you think you know how to spell that you missed in
your 5th grade spelling test. While the spell check program won’t catch
everything, it catches a good portion. That makes your read through much
easier.
Let your novel
rest
You’ve
just poured your heart out writing a book. By taking part in NaNoWriMo, you
committed yourself fully to this manuscript for the past month. Rereading it
right away may not be truly possible just yet, due to your “writer’s goggles.”
It
takes time to get a new set of eyes on the first draft of a novel, and the only
way to get that new set of editing eyes is to take a step back and give your
brain time to disconnect.
Print it out
When
you’re finally ready to start making your changes, grab a bottle of water and a
new printer cartridge. Go ahead and print the document out. All of it.
Read it out loud
. . .
To
read the rest of the post, click here:
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
- Your
Book Needs Manuscript Editing |
BookBaby Blog http://ow.ly/VDWLJ - What Are Our Readers’ “Must Click” Topics? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/VDWSU
- The 4 Most Common International Ebook Discounting Errors http://ow.ly/VFewZ
- Author-Editor Collaboration: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - The Book Designer http://ow.ly/VFigc
- 5 Secrets to Writing With Suspense | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/VFiRz
- Fishing Out Your Manuscript Hook | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/VFj4E
- How to Amplify your Writing Career or 6 Bad Writing Habits to Drop Right Now | WordDreams... http://ow.ly/VFjcc
- 7 Rules for Writing Dialogue | Now Novel http://ow.ly/VFjjw
- When you should—and should not—use a hyphen | Articles | Home http://ow.ly/VFjro
- How To Handle Feedback: 6 Do’s & Don’ts » Writeonsisters.com http://ow.ly/VFjIL
- Friday Night Arrives Without a Suitcase* | Confessions of a Mystery Novelist... http://ow.ly/VFjMu
- Fiction University: Why We Should Do Bad Things to Our Characters http://ow.ly/VFk2C
- This Story Game Will Train Your Imagination (and a prize!) http://ow.ly/VFkc7
- Self-Publishers: Are you a Book Planner or a Free Spirit? - The Book Designer http://ow.ly/VFkoev
- Karen Woodward: Lester Dent's Short Story Forumula http://ow.ly/VFkyM
- 5 Ways to Promote Your Free Book 1 Series Starter | Lindsay Buroker http://ow.ly/VFkHE
- The Big Question: How Can I Build My Platform and Still Have Time to Write? | Your Writer Platform http://ow.ly/VFkOW
- Fiction University: What You Really Want to Know About Self Publishing http://ow.ly/VFkZ7
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