Editing is like a labyrinth. It’s all too easy to get hopelessly lost in the maze of words and ideas, when trying to nail down a functional technique in how to edit fiction. Developing an effective writing style is key, which means study and practice: dedication to the craft of writing. Mining from editing experience scattered over miles, and through time, I’ve digested a few solid points of protocol that, with practice, should make the job relatively seamless.
Draft an Editing Process
Whether you’re editing a short story, magazine article, E-zine story, or full-on manuscript, there are a gamut of details to watch for: improper grammar, incomplete sentences, verb agreement, logical flow, narrative flow and consistency, editing for logical plot-lines, effective dialogue, and the like. When I first started out in magazine editing, my intentions were laid in gold, but often the volume of work became unmanageable at times, and I betrayed my process. Words to the wise: Don’t do it! Draft a plan of attack and stick to it.
Five Tips on How to Edit Your Story for Style, Economy and Flow
- Make a list of mechanics you’ll be editing for, in order of priority.
- Start with #1 on your list and go through the entire document with the one task on your mind. It’s a certainty that other mistakes that require you’re attention will taunt you from the periphery, but it’s important to keep from straying to other details. It’s rather like meditation in this way. It helps to perceive it as such.
- Read aloud as you are editing. Reading your fiction or non-fiction story aloud is a powerful editing tool to find road-bumps and obstructions that you might otherwise miss. It’s effective, also, in developing a sense of flow throughout the story. Reading aloud also helps to link the intuitive mind, with the analytical mind, and your descriptions, word economy and strength of plot will all shine for it.
- When creating descriptions, allow time and space to find the words that bring the scene alive. It’s often in the smallest of details that we can feel, sense, hear, smell and breathe what lives on the page.
- Stick to Rule #1.
A Brief Editing Exercise
Try reading the following paragraph aloud to yourself and take note where you seem to stumble, or fall, for that matter. Try your hand at going through and editing using the few pointers above. I’ve included an edited example below as well, but I suggest trying it on your own first.
A curtain of crisp, clear water spilled over a wall of the purest white limestone and into an almost perfectly circular pool. Once in a while the sunlight broke through the trembling branches around the pool and the limestone flashed in bursts of rainbow colour on its glimmering surface. The pond emptied into a wide, slow moving river. The pond itself beamed with life; small silver fish raced along the shoreline and would, from time to time, shoot out of the water spiraling high into the air before splashing back into the water. Where the pool grew blacker, fish of different sizes patrolled the depths; crabs lingered at the pool’s edges searching for morsels to sate an constant appetite.
Edited example:
A curtain of crisp, clear water spills over a wall of brilliant white limestone, into a pool that empties into a wide, slow moving river. Once in a while, the sunlight breaks through the trembling leaves in the canopy above, and flashes in bursts of rainbow on the glimmering surface of the water. The pond beams with life. Small silver fish dart and course just beneath the water and trace the shoreline for food. From time to time, an intrepid soul breaks the surface and spirals into open space, to escape what would seek to take its life; crabs linger at the water’s edge, searching for morsels to sate their constant appetite… Away from the water’s edge, where the pool grows black and deep, larger fish patrol the depths, in a constant state of vigilance.
Thank you for reading. Be well.
Dean Unger