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Self editing your book to get cleaner drafts and how to do it is a common question I get
from writers.
My fellow YouTuber Dale Roberts asks, "I'd love to know your best tips for self editing
your manuscript before sending to your editor….I hate sending a manuscript to my editor that
isn't as clean as it should be." +What's up, guys?
My name is Michael La Ronn with Author Level Up, helping you write better and grow your
influence with readers.
If you're new here, be sure to subscribe to get new writing videos every week.
And in this writing video, we're talking about self editing to get cleaner manuscripts.
The cleaner your book is before you send it to an editor, the less you'll pay, and the
more your editor will be able to engage with your story instead of fixing basic errors.
+I've written over 40 books and I've perfected the art of self editing.
Here are my top 4 tips to edit yourself into nirvana.
I've included 2 bonus pro tips in the video as well, so stay tuned.
Tip #1 is that if you want a clean manuscript, start cleaning as you write, not during editing.
+I don't outline anymore and I write my novels these days in one draft.
The reason I'm able to do this is because I've gotten good at editing as I go.
For example, I focus on getting my scenes right the first time.
Let me show an example of the crap I used to do.
I'd write my scene, and then I'd put stuff in brackets to come back to it.
I'd also write the scene very light and come back and add in things like sensory details
and character depth later.
That hurt me in many ways because once it was time to edit, the inspiration was gone
and I struggled.
Writing like this is the very definition of lazy.
+So take it from me and force yourself to write your scenes correctly the first time
around.
It will actually save you time and energy.
You're probably thinking—Michael, how do I actually do that?
Well, it's a mindset shift, for sure, which leads me to the next tip.
Tip #2 is to fix problems immediately when they arise as you're writing.
+Don't let anything sit.
If you come to a plot hole 75% of the way through your book, stop what you're doing
and address the issue, even if you have to do some rewriting or restructuring.
I recognize that this isn't easy.
Not at first.
But think about it like this: writing is like building a house.
It's far better and cheaper to fix problems when you discover them, not when the house
is already built, especially if you have foundation issues.
Once, I was 90% of the way entire series and discovered I had a big plot hole that would
have required me to make changes across all 3 books.
I paused the writing and fixed all the errors, which took me a good day and a half.
+It was super painful to go b elp you write and edit as you go, and that's looping.
+As you're writing, cycle back through the story every now and again and be on the lookout
for typos and errors.
You'd be amazed at how many errors you catch if you do this.
This is a tip I learned from Dean Wesley Smith in his book, Writing into the Dark.
Looping, or cycling, is important because it keeps you intimate with the details of
your story.
I don't know about you guys, but I often forget basic details and going back through
the manuscript helps me remember them later.
+So let's say you're not a "edit as you go" person and the writing and fixing
as you go doesn't work for you.
Or, you're done with your novel and you want to fix any outstanding issues before
sending it to your editor.
Here's my pro tip—develop a house style guide.
+House style guides are what editors use to ensure consistency in the documents they are
working on.
It tells them how to treat things like proper nouns, commas, numbers, ellipses, and other
issues where multiple possibilities exist.
For example, if you have a number, do you spell it out or list the numerals?
You might put in your style guide that for numbers less than ten, you spell them out,
and for anything greater than ten you use numerals.
+A style guide is not really for grammar, but you're creating an internal guide for
your own use, so you can use it to catalogue your weaknesses.
The best way to do this for yourself is to take your most recent novel, sit down and
actually look at the mistakes your editor fixed.
If you see a mistake more than once, write it down because it's an issue.
Do this for your entire book.
You'll see real quick where your actual weaknesses are, and this is eye-opening.
Next, find the weaknesses that can easily be found with a find/replace.
For example, if you constantly misspell your hero's last names, you would want to do
a find all for each name and just confirm that they're correct.
For the numeral issue I mentioned above, you might do a find/all for numbers 1-10 just
to double-check that you're consistent.
+Every time you finish a novel, run it through your house style guide.
This also has the added benefit of helping you when you write your next novel, because
you'll catch more errors in real-time as you write.
My second pro tip is to share this style guide with your editor, so they know what your weaknesses
are upfront.
Your editor will ultimately use their own style guide, but I find that this builds good
rapport with my editors because it tells them what to expect.
Moving on to Tip #4, which is be systematic so that this is quick, painless, and easy.
Next up are a bunch of mini tips around this topic, because I feel like being rogue today.
Mini-tip: I've found that the editing process goes smoother if I set a deadline.
Meaning, when that deadline hits, the book goes to my editor, no matter what.
+Don't fall into the perfectionism trap of constant tinkering, retooling, or rewriting.
Give yourself only a couple days to comb your book for errors.
I understand it's hard to let go, but it's good for you in the long run.
Mini-tip: Use Scrivener 3's linguistic focus feature to hone in on areas of weakness.
For example, if you want to isolate all of your dialogue, you can do that.
This feature is incredibly cool and will give you a fresh perspective on your book.
You can also fade surrounding text in and out which will help you spot errors that might
have been hiding from you.
Mini-tip: Edit on a different device you wrote the novel on.
If you write on your phone, edit on your desktop, or vice versa.
Changing things up will give you a fresh look at your manuscript, which is desperately needed
when you've been working on it for a long time.
You can also have your writing app dictate your book to you so you can listen to the
pacing.
I recommend only doing this for the first couple of chapters and a few key sections
in your book.
And the final mini-tip is to use your writing app's spell-checker as a last line of defense.
Some of you may use an app like Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid, and if you're doing
it simply to catch typos, that's fine.
Just remember that these apps produce a lot of false positives, so you want to make sure
that you're going to have a strong understanding of your craft if you're going to be relying
on their grammar recommendations.
So, those are my 4 tips.
My personal process right now is to write the novel in one draft while looping and fixing
errors immediately as they arise.
When I'm done, I run through my style guide, do some spot-checks on important parts of
the novel, and use spell checker last for obvious errors.
The key for me is that the self-editing process is quick, easy, and systematic.
I don't have to think about it.
What do you think?
What's your top self-editing tip?
Drop me a comment and let me know.
As always, many of the best writing tips come from you guys, so don't keep the answers
to yourself.
+That's it for this video.
If this is your first time watching, I'd love to have you subscribe.
Every week I publish videos just like this one with writing and marketing advice to help
you write better and grow your influence with readers.
So thanks for watching.
I'll see you in the next video.
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