User blog:JohnathanNash/Editing and some things to look for.

So, if any of you have known me since I've started, and know me from some other places, you may know that I've struggled with editing for a while. Now, I've gotten a little better on how to edit, and would like to share some of the wisdom with you. There's some really easy things that you can search for and either change or get rid of entirely.

1) So, let's the the most obvious thing out of the way first: grammar. Look for things that aren't correct. There's plenty of other pages on this site to help find some issues with grammar, and I'd advise you read them, but here's a quick list of easy things to keep an eye out for: Overuse of punctuation (namely semi-colons and ellipsis), misspelled words, capitalization, the basic kind of things.

2) Repetition: This one is kind of hard to get down on, I've been working on spotting it and I'm getting better at it. Like mentioned before, grammar. Keep the unneeded punctuation, things that you may think are adding dramatic effect, to a minimum. If every sentence ends in an ellipsis, it's going to make the reader get board, or the person who is talking will have a really bad habit or just zoning-out. Either way it is a bit of an annoyance for the reader. Semi-colons as well. There's no need to end every sentience with a semi-colon. In fact, if you don't know how to use them correctly, I'd suggest to omit everyone one until you learn how to.

Words are another thing to keep an eye out for. When you're writing you may just keep using words like "look", "saw", "stood", "ran", or any variance of those words. Of course, these aren't the only words that can be used over and over again. The first two were in a story I've written recently, and used those two words over thirty times. On top of that, I've also used "void" and "sphere" about the same amount of times. So, there was an abundance of the same words over and over again. Think about how the reader would feel if they had to keep reading the same words over and over again. It doesn't sound that good. It's not something that will ruin a story, but using synonyms for these words would make a huge difference.

3) Keeping slightly on the repetition but just for a different subject, we will go with sentence structure. If every sentence was basic and easy to write. Or if you just jotted down some of the story and ended everything the same way. It would get a little tiresome for the reader. Those last three sentences were pretty much an example of what I was talking about; it was just basic punctuation. Everything only had a period, where there could have been much more punctuation. I could have said the same things with less words and better use of punctuation, and with that those sentences would look nicer, and read smoother.

Sure, there are times when you have to use the same punctuation, and that's fine. But, if you can combine sentences, do it. There's a good amount of examples where something like that can change the entire tone of a story, and normally it's for the better.

4) Cutting: Wow, this is a big part. Cutting parts of a story is very important, because it gets rid of the useless things. Anything that doesn't affect the story, get rid of it. It could be the best part of the story, but if it doesn't add to the story overall, cut that shit out. If it has something to with the story, keep it in, easy as that. (That was a bit repetitive by the way, and if this was a story I was writing I'd cut it.)

That's not to say cut everything out of the story. Some things add to a story, but not to the overall story. If there's a group of people, and you're only going to focus on two of them, you need to decide if the story is better with all of them or not. Sure, sometimes you can cut those characters out, but if you feel like there's someone in the story that's not totally needed, but adds something to the story, keep them in. This is harder to see when it's something that you've spent so much time working on, but it is worth it.

5) Show don't tell: Of course this one is going to be on here. Everyone says show don't tell, but that doesn't mean people understand what they're talking about. Hopefully I can shed some light on that subject. Whenever you say someone's face was distorted, or explain someone's emotion, it's telling. Show how the face is distorted, what does it look like?

Feelings can also fall into this category. So-and-so was upset. Great, so what do they look like? Are they mashing their teeth? Is their jaw clenched? Face flushed? Or are they crying? See, you can show what they are feeling and the reader will get it in a more entertaining way than just saying they're upset.

6) Change things: This is the best part about editing. In Stephen King: On Writing, he mentions something along the lines of "It is only human to write, but to edit is godly." That's a paraphrase, so if I've gotten it wrong, sorry. I never understood what that meant, what that meant until I started editing. (Yes, for a long time I thought that I didn't' need to edit my work. That was a stupid idea.)

What that quote means is that you can change things in the world you've built or what the people do. You are sitting on Mt. Olympus, throwing thunderbolts down at your characters. You can intervene in their lives and change the outcome of the story. The outcomes can be endless. You're a god in the world you built, and be a cruel god to those people. Give them hell, because if something is slow, your story become...boring.

Why I wrote this
Well, I've decided to write this for two reasons. The first, I think it's a good thing to share the knowledge that one has. If someone has something that may be helpful to others, it's a good idea to share it. Also, if anyone gets anything from what I've written, I'd feel like I've done some good.

The second reason, and this is more of a selfish reason, is it helps to beat some of these things into my head. It keeps me thinking about what I need to keep an eye out for when I edit my stories. And that's still my weakest area in writing. I've come a long way (so long in fact that I'm not going to edit this post) from where I started. But, like everyone else, there's still a lot of room from improvement. So, writing this will cut down some of the problems I have with editing.

Thanks for reading this, and allowing me to beat some thing into my head.