Writing tips

The plot
thickens

Choosing
a literary
agent

Query letters

Inspire me!

But they
rejected me!

Editing tip 1

Good writing isn't simply a matter of precise grammar, active verbs and colourful prose. It has to sound right too. If possible, find a sensitive ear and read your work aloud. Listen for anything that clashes or misleads. For instance: He looked at the envelope and saw a small tear. Is that tear as in crying? Or tear as in rip? You might well find the answer in your following sentence. But it's better to set up the reader so that the meaning is communicated first time around. She'd been crying, he saw. There was a small tear on the envelope.
 

Editing tip 2

Watch out for tautologies. For instance: He sat down. You don't need to say "sat" and "down". It's stronger to say simply; He sat.

Don't say, In actual fact. Just say; In fact.

Occasionally you'll need to add a word to a sentence for "balance". But mostly, cut unnecessary words. Streamline. Simplify.

Editing tip 3

Mr Smith will appear in court charged with murdering his wife on Wednesday. This is a common error (especially on BBC news). The sentence should read: Mr Smith will appear in Court on Wednesday charged with murdering his wife. Or: On Wednesday, Mr Smith will appear in Court charged with murdering his wife. Practise listening for these errors. After a while, you'll spot them everywhere. It will improve your writing no end - and will ruin your listening enjoyment.

Editing tip 4

Check your verbs and adverbs. Don't say He drove quickly along the street. Say instead, He tore along the street or The car hurtled along the street. The adverb "quickly" weakens the verb "drove". If you need to explain in detail how he drove, try something like this: He drove along the street, the speedometer needle nudging ninety. Or, better still: The speedometer nudged ninety as he hurtled along the street. Think laterally and use supporting evidence to show how he drove. The shops and pedestrians passed him in a blur. Or; The accelerator pedal hit the floor. He was travelling at breakneck  speed.

. This is as much a writing tip and an editing tip. But good writing is good editing, and vice versa.

Editing tip 5

Good English is important. But good communication is vital. The rules of writing are flexible and can be bent a long way out of shape. Yes, you should always strive to increase your word power and sharpen your English language usage. But bad grammar can sometimes be good grammar depending on the circumstances and context. Be creative with words and get your story down. The details can be handled further down the line.

Back to the top

Editing your novel

Editing gets a bad rap. Novice writers tend to think of it as a necessary evil best handled quickly and forgotten; a minor chore on par with, say, sticking a label on a submissions envelope.

Experienced writers, meanwhile, know that the reverse is true. They understand that editing is perhaps the most crucial aspect of any manuscript's preparation. 

Editing means polishing. Editing means cutting - or even hacking - away at the dead words thereby giving the writing a chance to "breathe" and flow.

If writing a book is rough cutting a block of text, then editing is the sculpting of that block.

It's not an exact science. Ten editors may approach the same project in 10 ways. Or may not approach it at all if they feel it's unsuited to their peculiar talents.

Or interests.
    There is no such thing as a perfectly edited book or document. There are only documents and books that are edited in ways that suits a certain requirement at a certain time.

A well-edited manuscript (within a given set of criteria) might sell. Or might not sell. There are no guarantees in the literary or journalism world, except the guarantee of rejection at one time or another.

All that a well-edited manuscript can offer is a better chance of being taken seriously and being accepted - while a poorly edited manuscript, no matter how good it might be, faces a high probability of instant rejection.

Can I self edit?

Of course. You can and should. In fact, I wouldn't want to look at a document or manuscript that hasn't, to a greater or lesser degree, faced the editing pen.

Or axe.

Where I come in is when a manuscript has faced repeated rejection; or when a writer knows that there's something wrong but can't fix it; or when a manuscript has been accepted subject to editorial revision; or when a writer needs a little fresh impetus.

That happens commonly enough, usually because a writer has been working on a project for so long that he or she has lost focus.

Or feels they have.

With modern word processors, many authors edit line-by-line as they write. But the act of constantly erasing words, or ideas, or characters, or plots, can lead to "blind" spots. Or "dull" spots.

This happens constantly with my own projects. I line-edit as I write, constantly making small alterations - each of which leaves an imprint in my mind. At the end of 100,000 words, I'm carrying more than twice that amount of literary baggage.

The writing no longer feels fresh. I see words, but not the feelings and impressions that lie behind the words.

Usually a break of a few weeks, or months, is sufficient to erase all the imprints. Then I re-edit. If I can't manage it myself, I hand it over to the girlfriend who has a knack of spotting things I missed.
    So to conclude, self-edit as much as possible, and get the hired guns (or girlfriend) in later.

If you edit my manuscript, will you alter my voice?

I sincerely hope so. Most editors will tell you otherwise; that they'll preserve your unique style. But that's unrealistic. Everything that's done to your writing will change it, hopefully for the better. But don't count on it. The trick is to take the best aspects of your voice and cut the worst. Just watch for an editor who puts his overly distinct stamp on your work. To preclude this, maintain good communications throughout and explain exactly how you want your project to be handled.

For instance, do you want to sound fast? Hard? Clipped? Smooth? Earthy? Sophisticated?

And don't feel that you have to have one voice and stick to it throughout your writing career. You can change. Grow. Adapt. You can experiment.

And with fiction projects, what about your other voices within the story? You may be fine handling the upper classes of your 1930 crime caper, but how are your gangsters? Your butlers? Your ordinary man in the street?

A good editor will help you avoid characters that sound as if they came from the same box and will help bring individuality to your players and help make them distinct.

And unique.

Put simply, if you approach an editor for help, you're asking for change. So expect it and make the most of it.

Fortunately, there's cross-pollination at work here too. Each time an editor takes on a new project, he expands his "palette" of voices. That's an editors skill. Or ought to be if he or she is any good.

Can you guarantee my ideas won't be stolen?

No. The fact is, all writers borrow or steal ideas from other writers, and no editor can guarantee anything. That's the hard truth. You're never going to get total protection - just as an established published writer can never totally protect his or her body of work.

Writers routinely hijack character types. They change names. They change locations. They copy techniques and habits. They borrow nuances. I certainly do.

That's living, breathing writing at work.

And that's why there are thousands of detective duos out there solving any number of complex murder mysteries. There are thousands of spies tackling thousands of villains bent of world domination. There are thousands of FBI agents tackling serial killers. Thousands of soldiers fighting thousands of battles. While a million overheated romances blossom in the pages of a million bodice rippers.

Put simply, the plots have pretty much all been done, one way or another. The twists and turns are generally old hat. The best you can do is put your own stamp on an idea based on your personal (and largely unique) experiences.

What this means is that editors generally don't need to steal your ideas when there are thousands of successful formulas in the bookshops of any High Street.

But yes, it can happen. You could have an editor steal your idea. He could perhaps read your manuscript and pass it onto a friend, just as you could have a solicitor or accountant swindle you. But these things are rare.

For myself, I've yet to see a manuscript that I think is a sure-fire winner. J K Rowling was rejected dozens of times. Dan Brown was rejected. John Grisham was rejected. Joseph Heller was rejected. It simply isn't that obvious what sells and what doesn't. And literary agents with a reputation for “sniffing out a best seller” are often merely selling successfully, and what they sell is commonly a question of personal fancy.

I thought my own novels were pretty good and spent years on them. But you can't always get the rest of the trade to ride on your peculiar hobby horse.

It’s a lottery.

So if you mean will I take your manuscript and stick my name on it and send it out to my favourite agents, then probably not. But you'll have to take that on trust. You'll have to talk to me and sound me out or get together for a face-to-face chat and see if I'm a friend or a fraud.

The truth is that I'm too busy trying to sell my own novels to spend time ripping off other projects. Also, I'm in the habit of writing what I want to write, rather than what the market really wants. That's probably not the fastest way to get that big publishing deal. But does the world really need another FBI serial-killer novel? Or another tale about the intrigues of the Vatican? Or the CIA?

Well, it might. But it won't be me who writes it. I just don't work that way.

If you want to give some protection to your manuscript, there are a variety of things people do to at least preserve the illusion that their work is secure. Such as mailing copies of their book to themselves and not opening the envelope. Or getting affidavits signed. Or drafting elaborate contracts. Or a hundred other naive mechanisms.

But as I said, it all comes down to trust. And if you can't build that trust with your editor, don't do it.

However, if you're really desperate for editing help on your can't-miss best-seller (and are concerned about the security of your project), you might try having your work looked at chapter by chapter. That might lead to a less than perfect finished project. But it might suit.

Or you might have a single chapter edited and use that as a template to self-improve the rest of your manuscript.

That's not ideal either. But it might get you out of a jam.

Or you might offer the editor a small percentage deal so that he or she wins both ways.

And here's a salient thought. What if an editor is already working privately on a storyline that closely resembles your own? Or what if the publishing house you send your book to has a similar project in the pipeline?

It happens.

So, at the very least take a tip and check what your editor is already working on (although he or she will want to preserve client confidentiality and won't be prepared to give too much away). But if it sounds too close to your own project, you may want to look elsewhere.

Good luck.