I don't think I will have to. Might need some general editing, but I think it was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. It was nicely revealing for the characters, and also ups the angst between them.
I hope I'm doing this editing lark right. It feels a bit different to editing my fan fic. I mean, if I got the editing wrong with the fan fic, it wasn't too serious. I might get the odd terrible review (luckily that never really happened - only strict, constructive criticism at the beta/draft stage) - but it wasn't the difference between being published and not being published.
Anyway, the process has begun. I'm going to read through the whole story, so I have an idea of how it flows - like a true book. Then, I'll start doing the things I know that need fixing - thanks to those that have given me some feedback - then I work on reducing the word count. It's around 90,000 words believe it or not, so Stephen King (On Writing) says I need to lose about 10% of it.
I have noticed that I've used 'can't quite put his finger on it' a few times. Those are going to have to go! They stand out like sore thumbs.
I've also realised I've got Sophie swearing too much. Not very lady like. There are a couple of times where it's allowable, but a few times I think I could tone it down. She's not me - who swears like a trooper!
Right, well, I can't sit around here chatting, I've got a novel to edit.
One of the best things for repeated words is to put your manuscript into http://www.wordle.net/create it tells you which words you have used too often. I usually change the settings to top 50 words and then work through them in word using find. Good luck with the editing. Mx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Morton. I will look into that. Definitely will be useful.
ReplyDeleteTeresa