We can approach editing in two ways. We can edit after the fact when the manuscript or part of the manuscript is finished. Or we can edit as we go. Now, if we edit when the manuscript is finished, it's very, very tedious, it means a lot of work because there are thousands and thousands of words. You could edit every week, or every five writing sessions, which would mean that you'd be editing five to 10,000 words. Now the other way is to edit as you write.
As you can imagine, this slows down your production significantly, and it also blocks creativity. A good compromise is to keep these rules in mind as you write. You'll soon learn to apply them semi automatically as you put your words down on the page. Now professional editor is highly recommended. But of course, it costs money. You can send me a message the details of a great editor if you need one.
You learn how over usage of adjectives and adverbs kills prose. The meaning can become lost in too many words that don't move the story alone. See the list of common adjectives and adverbs in the lecture and use the fine function in your word processor or a similar software. You learn how the active voice is more dynamic than the passive, change the password for the active voice whenever you can, and whenever you detected. A good tip here is that Microsoft Word Processor 365 has a new editor function which can actually detect the passive voice in your prose. The punctuation marks examined in this lecture are very useful for organizing your sentences use the word find function to search for a period plus a space.
This will denote the end of a sentence. Is it a short sentence, and maybe it can be joined to its neighbor using a colon or a semi colon. When writing numbers, you can choose various ways, and experts differ on the accepted way. My tip is whichever way you choose, stick with it. Consistency is essential in prose. unnecessary words can be adjectives, adverbs, or any others.
They can recognize by repeating the sentence when deleted, does the sentence still make sense? If so, erase it. You can expect to delete between 10 and 15% Have your manuscript in this line is it phase by deleting unnecessary words. The best way to handle fancy words is simply not to write them in the first place. Use direct, plain speech in your prose. absolutes creep into our pros without our realizing it, and they are very common.
Check the words in the lecture dealing with absolutes and replace them with one of the recommended words. Pros reflects everyday speech and cliches appear because that's how most people speak. Train yourself to notice when you say cliche, in day to day speaking, gradually reduce it and stop it all together. This will stop your writing them. We all have favorite words we overuse just read two or three pages of your paper. rows, and these words will jump out at you.
If in doubt, search and replace using the find function in your word processor. Count how many times you use them and replace if necessary. interjections are a great way to indicate surprise, emotion, or mood. And they're very often used in dialogue. Use sparingly, they're a great way to characterize a hero or a baddie. You learn that prose needs to be direct and punchy.
Tell your reader how it is not how it seems to be, or how it might be. Search your manuscript for words like seems, might, perhaps, maybe, and others we discussed in the lecture can be removed. Or can the sentence be reworded. You learn some structural and other strategies for me Producing rhythm, balance and variety into your prose. Your job as an author is to tell your story. While you're telling your story is the same to bore the reader.
I hope you enjoyed this short course, looking at ways in which you can improve your prose. Keep in mind that this course is basic, not exhaustive. But if you apply these rules, it will improve your prose tremendously. Always remember, your goal is to tell your story in such a way that the reader finds enjoyable. Good prose is essential to this process. Writing good prose is the way that you engage your reader and make sure that he wants to keep turning those pages.
A professional editor would call this part of the process, line editing. And this is when we look at each sentence in each paragraph and we check the structure to see the It makes sense and that we don't use too many words or we use words in the wrong way.