The Memoirist’s Dilemma
Every writer struggles with Truth. What is true, what is fact, why is your truth valid rather than someone else’s memory? Navigate the murky waters of life and memory to write your truth.
I Can’t Afford an Editor
“I Can’t Afford an Editor.”
I hear this claim in every class I teach or writer’s group I attend. The complaint hides two fears: bloody red ink on your manuscript and the idea that a supposed, expert stranger will tell you what to write. The cost is a factor but it is not the factor.
To allay your fears and minimize the cost know that editing is an iterative, not a one and done process. What do I mean?
- Only you can write your 1st draft. Introducing an editor at this phase is a form of creative suicide;
- Create a full draft, celebrate, and self-edit after you take the following steps:
- Celebrate your accomplishment
- Allow the text to marinate in a safe inaccessible place for 2-6 weeks
- Read the full manuscript as a reader, not a writer
- Understand that you can never be a fully objective reader
- Return to the text to read as a self-editor
- Is the point of view consistent?
- Are there adequate transitions?
- Have you used enough dialogue to move the action forward?
- Is the pace and tone in keeping with the genre?
- Did you use the five senses as tools to show not tell your story?
- Use your self-edits to write a second draft.
- Be amazed by how you have improved the text
- Do a copyedit of the second draft, use online tools to help you
- Spell & grammar checks
- Grammarly.com
- Search and replace tools
- Ask other writers to act as beta readers:
- Specify what you want from readers
- Specify the desired turn around time
- Be sure the anticipated return is reasonable for the length of the manuscript
- Don’t resent a no response, timing is everything
- Be willing to reciprocate
- Read through the provided edits with care
- Consider every comment and use those that resonate to complete your third draft
Presuming that you’ve made edits to the manuscript based on reader feedback, re-read the text with the above-bulleted self-edit questions in mind, performed a second tools scan, and made all changes you can identify you will have a completed third draft and you haven’t spent a cent. Congratulations!
Time to hire an editor.
How do you find the right editor?
See you next post. Happy writing.
What is NANOWRIMO?
November is the month you challenge yourself. This is not a competition with others. This is a personal challenge to write 50,000 words in a month. Why? November is National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO). Login to https://nanowrimo.org
Write 1667 words a day for thirty days. At the end of November, you will be well on your way to a first draft. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? As you read these words your internal editor is screeching, “Are you crazy?” Perhaps.
Let’s say you commit to the challenge but only complete 10,000 words. This is still a win. At the end of November you will have more words than you did at the end of October and if you truly ignored your internal editor, you might have a fertile seed for a new book. Trust your creative self. Give it a try.
