After NaNo comes editing!
I am in no way a professional author or an expert in anything writing, but I write and that means I also have to edit. For NaNoWriMo this year, I wrote Dangerous Obsession, and although it’s not completely finished, I am going through the first draft and editing as I go along. I’ve compiled a small editing checklist.
1. Strike needless words
This pretty much explains itself. Look for redundancies and get rid of them.
2. Quotation marks
Add quotation marks where necessary, especially when your character is speaking.
3. Similar character names
This can be confusing for both the writer and reader sometimes, so make sure the characters’ names are easy to recall individually.
4. CAPITALIZE!
Capitalize names, places, months, the beginning of a sentence, etc.
5. One voice or two voices?
Writers are told that is better that they stick to one voice (POV), but if you’re working with two or more characters, make sure that you include whose POV they’re speaking from.
6. Avoid using ‘literally’
Like literally!
7. Spelling
Does it look right?
8. Dialogue game
Make sure that the dialogue serves the story in every case.
9. Read aloud
Gotta make sure what you’ve written is making sense.
10. Double check everything
A writer can never go wrong with this technique. After all, we want the reader to be satisfied with what they’re reading.
***GIFs via Google Search
Here’s a couple of things I like to look for: Are the characters’ motivations clear, are you showing or telling the story (there can be a mix, but sometimes it’s clear in a scene that you’re telling what happened instead of showing), is there an information dump where a reader could lose interest because the subject matter is too technical or too much information is revealed too quickly, and is there too much “business as usual” (Does each scene move the story forward or reveal something about the character? If not, it can probably be cut.).
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All good stuff! I’ll be mindful of some of these while editing. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
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