Editing a Novel by Marilyn Levinson

I like editing. The way I see it, the hard work of creating my novel is done. Now my job is to make my manuscript read as smoothly as possible so that no error or inconsistency pulls my reader out of the story.

Before I send my manuscript to my editor, I go over it three times. The first read-through takes the longest because I'm constantly making corrections. While I both add and cut words in the process, I end up having more words than I started with, which is fine. The next go-throughs move more swiftly, but there are always sentences that require changes and edits. Here are my recommendations of what to keep in mind as you edit your manuscript.

1. Make sure that Tuesday follows Monday. When writing a novel, I sometimes forget to make note of which day a scene takes place and move on, losing track of the dates. This can present a problem when you discover it's Sunday in your novel when you need it to be a weekday. This is especially true when you have a big event at the end of the book and you've mentioned how many days away it is from your opening chapter.

2. Be sure you don't change a name mid-stream. Sounds silly, except I've done it, and I was lucky that my editor picked up on all the incidents of the "new" name. Once I even wrote Sammy, my cat's name, instead of Smoky Joe, a character in my series.

3. Speaking about names, make sure your characters' names aren't too similar. Some people say you shouldn't have names that start with the same letter, but I don't think that's a rule you must follow, especially if they have a different number of syllables. Also, using simple names like Bob and Don might confuse some readers as they are both one syllable and share a vowel. In one mystery I included a list of characters because I introduced many characters at the beginning of Chapter One.  

4. Make sure you're consistent. Novels, especially mysteries, have complicated plots and often an incident or piece of information is repeated in the text, perhaps referred to by another character. Make sure the information is the same throughout, unless you're deliberately changing it. The same goes for descriptions of your characters, their ages, and what they're wearing that day.

5. Remember when and where your scene is taking place. Some scenes are longer than others and require several pages. Always check back to the start of the scene to make sure you know the time of day and where your characters are when you began so you don't have your character leaving work when she's home.

6. We all have favorite words and phrases. Check to see that you're not overusing them. My favorite is "just." I think it often expresses just what I want a sentence to say.:)

7. When you make a change, for example, in your murder weapon, be sure to make this change throughout your manuscript. Be consistent.

8. When going farther back in time, past the past tense, remember to use the past perfect tense, at least in the first few sentences of the paragraph. e.g. She had seen him a few times before she returned to work.

9. Check your punctuation. For me, this usually means making sure I've closed quotation marks. This is also a good time to check your commas. Frankly, I find myself less certain than ever when to use commas. I know one is no longer needed before the word "too." Comma-wise, I usually defer to my editor and copy editor.

10. Is it a compound word, a hyphenated word, or two words? Again, I defer to my editor and copy editor.

11. Going through my manuscript a second time, I occasionally find a better word than one I've written. This is especially true when I'm trying to avoid using the same word in a paragraph. 

12.  I try to read my third go-through slow enough so that I'm reading every word I've written. Our mind is very helpful and fills in missing words, something that isn't helpful when it come to editing. Reading your manuscript aloud helps find any missing words. Also, beware of having written "their" when you meant to write "there," "it's" when you meant "its." This can happen if you mentally hear your words as you write them.

Do you have any other suggestions of what to look for when we're editing a novel?

Righting the Wrongs by Copy Editing by Martha Reed

Whether writing short fiction or a novel length work, a new creative writing project can present a minefield of hurdles from initial blank page paranoia through chapter structuring terror until finally a satisfactory conclusion is reached and I type those ever-blessed words: The End (or ###.)

And then the real fun begins. Copy editing.

It’s never easy handing my brand-new baby over to a professional editor, even when I’d trust that editor with my soul. The new story is still so fresh, so delicate there’s a fear that if I jigger it too much, shift too many pieces, I may lose the vital essence that brought the story to vibrant life. I’m sure there are writers out there who are so knowledgeable about the craft of writing that they can grammatically dissect their stories into bits and then fit the tiny bits back together without a bobble, but I’m not one of them. When my story is as complete and polished as I can make it, I’m terrified that if I edit it too much it will end up looking like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, all patched up paragraphs with thick obvious sutures, a shaky house of cards that may come tumbling down with one harsh puff or worse: that I may change something vital that I can’t fix.

There’s a definite left brain/right brain thing going on with mystery writers, and I think it’s the difference between imagining whole new worlds and new characters (right-brain) versus developing plot points, twists, and logical conclusions (left-brain). This difference may explain why some writers are gifted “pantsers” (e.g., writing by the seat of your pants) versus gifted plotters (e.g., following a step-by-step story outline.)

I’ve decided that editors are neither one of these two types. They are an entirely separate and alien species. These folks take copy editing to another, higher level. They spot story flaws from outer space, from Mars. I also know that when an editor agrees to review my work that I need to throttle my fragile ego, calmly close my eyes, listen to their advice with an open ear and step off into the void, trusting that in the end all will be well and that they fundamentally do come in peace.

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with an amazing professional editor. She gave me exactly one hour via a Zoom call to review three hurdles she identified in my story while at the same time offering such excellent fixes that I was in complete agreement with her from the start of our over caffeinated conversation. One of her suggestions was even so good, so much better than what I had written that I felt a twinge of professional jealousy that I hadn’t come up with it on my own. My only real difficulty was in accepting that my “final version” was really and truly final and that I couldn’t make any additional last-minute tweaking edits after I sent the “final version” off, probably some form of separation anxiety.

To be fair, any emails that I send out that start with “But, wait…” should be ignored.

In podcasts and at conferences you repeatedly hear that working with a professional editor is about developing a long-term relationship, that it’s never about one single book, that editors are looking for publishing career partners. What has your editorial experience been like?

What Came Before?

 by Kaye George

This article was drawn to my attention by fellow mystery writer, Molly MacRae;

https://strandmag.com/the-mathematics-of-mystery/

by darnok

The author talks about how her profession in mathematics feeds her writing. Her discussion also concerns logic. It’s easy to see how that is useful in putting together a plot!

by GeoffS

The article got me to thinking. What do our previous lives bring to our writing? For me, how have my many jobs/professions/careers helped my mystery writing? Honestly, how could they not? I have contended before, that what comes out of a writer’s mind is a mishmash of everything that’s ever gone in, gotten stirred up, combined, recombined, and emerged as what sometimes looks like an original idea. 

I’m lucky in that I’ve had a whole lot of prior occupations. I started babysitting at 15, waitressing a couple of years later. On school breaks and in the summer, more waitressing, cooking, even dishwashing once (never again), nurse’s aide, factory janitor, nanny. Then, after marriage, I worked civilian for the Army for a year before following Hubby around the country working at secretarial and bookkeeping jobs. 

by Erean

My college major, in case you’re wondering, was Russian Studies, which in no way prepared me for any job I ever had. (But helps reading Greek just a bit.) In college, I envisioned being an interpreter, but Viet Nam and marriage turned out not to be the path to that career. 

by Ferval

Along the way, I always played violin in local groups: community orchestras and string quartets. And we had three kids, so child-raising is part of my résumé too. And puppy training, kitten training, goldfish care, fish care, newt care, and probably some I’ve forgotten about. (And, now, grand-mothering.)

I finally settled down and worked at computer programming for about 15 years before retiring from that to write mysteries. 

IBM mainframe  By Ing. Richard Hilber - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8724964

Right after being a mom and grandma, this is the best job I ever had. I’m so glad I made it to this stage!

What former positions have influenced my writing? All of them, of course.

A few of the more obvious ones for me~~

From the food industry: recipes for my cozies

From music: a series with a composer/conductor as sleuth

From moving all over the country: locations galore that I can use for novels and short stories

From office jobs: work relationships

From family: family relationships

Relationships are a big part of my writing. What we are today is a result of every relationship we ever had, every job we ever had, every book we ever read, every movie we ever saw, every piece of music we ever listened to, every place we ever lived and visited.

It has just occurred to me that this is another way to answer the perennial question: Where do you get your ideas? I’ll have to remember this!