The first draft is all about finding the story. The real writing begins after the first draft. Most writers have different processes. In this post, I want to cover the important notes of self-editing for writers that I use for my editing process.
My usual writing process is
- Finish the first draft.
- Write the second draft by editing the first draft.
- Edit the second draft by reading loudly and edit the second draft into the third draft.
- Send the third draft to copy-editor.
- Edit the third draft after copy-editor’s comments.
- Send the fourth draft to a proofreader.
- I will do a final proofread.
- Send the draft to beta readers.
- Final draft after beta readers’ comments.
Show, don’t tell
This is the famous rule that every writer has to follow. Show, don’t tell. When you describe your characters, settings, events, you should show them instead of telling them. There are exceptions. You can’t write everything by showing. So you have to use your judgment where to show and where to tell, equally how much to show and how much to tell.
This is the hardest rule, but also the most important of all.
Usually, when I rewrite my second draft, I will go through each paragraph for a scene and see if I am making a mistake in showing too little or telling too much.
Characterization and Exposition
When you introduce a new character in your writing, it’s helpful to describe the physical description of that character.
But when it comes to characters’ personalities, it is often better to show through their actions rather than telling about it. Usually, you can use actions, reactions, internal monologue, and dialogue.
Introduce your character gradually, that way readers can interpret the characters at their own pace.
Point of view
First person point of view often starts with “I”. In the first person, the narrator is one of the characters, not the writer. The advantage of the first person is intimacy. The disadvantage is the loss of perspective.
Omniscient perspective is about when a narrator knows all the characters. The narrator has full access to the thoughts and experiences of all characters in the story. With omniscient POV, you gain in perspective.
Third person point of view strikes the balance between the first-person and omniscient point of view.
Another factor that controls your narrative distance is how much you allow your viewpoint character’s emotions to color your descriptions.
Allowing your characters’ emotions to steep into your descriptions also lets you use descriptions more freely. The emotions have to go somewhere, and the language of your descriptions is a good place for them.
It’s almost always more effective to stick with a single viewpoint character and let other characters’ emotions come out through their dialogue and action.
How do you change the point of view without jerking your readers around?
End the current scene, insert a linespace, and start a new scene from the point of view you need. Linespaces prepare readers for a shift (in time, or point of view).
Along with dialogue and interior monologue, the point of view is the place where your character’s emotions belong.
Proportion
When you fill all the details with description and leave nothing to readers’ imaginations, you’re patronizing them. This mostly happens because of the proportion problem.
Sometimes the proportion problems arise when a writer is writing about his pet interests or hobbies.
To avoid the proportion problem, pay attention when you are writing. Cut the excess of telling about emotions or descriptions.
Ask simple questions – Is it really needed? Does it add? Should it be shorter? longer?
Dialogue Mechanics
Resist the urge to explain. Do not explain emotions. Readers should feel them.
If your dialogue isn’t well written, if it needs an explanation to convey the emotion – then the explanation won’t really help.
If you tell your readers she is astonished when her dialogue doesn’t show astonishment, then you’ve created an uncomfortable tension between dialogue and your explanation.
Dialogue explanations often take the form of -ly adverbs.
If you want to use a verb about characters saying the dialogues, use said.
When you’re writing speaker attributions, the right verb is always said.
Don’t open a paragraph of dialogue with the speaker attribution. Instead, start the paragraph with dialogue and place the speaker attribution at the first natural break in the first sentence.
If it’s clear from the dialogue who is speaking – if two characters are bantering back and forth, for instance – you can dispense with speaker attributions altogether.
Use dashes rather than ellipses to show an interruption.
Start a new paragraph whenever you have a new speaker. It will help your readers keep track of who’s saying what.
See how it sounds
The simplest way to make your dialogues less formal is to use more contractions.
Use sentence fragments. Sentence fragments are contracting your sentences in short.
Another way to make dialogue more natural is to weed out fancy polysyllabic words unless the use of them is right for the character.
Another technique for loosening up dialogue is misdirection.
Have your characters misunderstand one another once in a while. Let them disagree, lie.
If your dialogue is stiff, you should bring your ear into play when you’re editing. Read out loud. The eye can be fooled, but the ear knows. Reading a passage aloud can help you find the rhythm of your dialogue. Speaker attributions, when to insert a beat, when to let the dialogue push ahead – all of these become clearer when you hear dialogue being spoken.
Internal Monologue
Two places where you can put the character emotion you’ve stripped out of your dialogue mechanics – into the dialogue itself and into the language of your descriptions written from an intimate point of view. A third place is an internal monologue.
What’s the right amount of internal monologue? – The balance you hit depends on what your characters are feeling, how important their feelings are to the story at that point, how you want the scene to flow, and especially, how evident their feelings are in other ways.
One actual rule for an internal monologue – never, ever use quotes for an internal monologue.
Easy beats
Beats are the bits of action interspersed through a scene such as a character walking to a window or removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
Beats allow you to vary the pace of your dialogue. And as with interior monologue, it’s very easy to interrupt your dialogue so often that you bring its pace to a halt.
Beats are also used to help tie your dialogue to your setting and characters. Beats provide those occasional little bits of imagery that guide your readers’ imaginations. Don’t overuse beats.
Describing your action too precisely can be as condescending as describing your characters’ emotions.
How many beats you need depends on the rhythm of your dialogue.
Beats can show the body language of your characters and that’s why they are important.
Once is usually enough
Remove anything repetitive, whether the words, the sentences, or the two paragraphs.
Keep an eye out for unconscious repetitions on the smallest scale – especially repetitions in which the repeated word isn’t used in the same sense as the original word.
A fringe benefit of getting rid of unnecessary repetitions is that it frees up the power of intentional repetitions or repetitions for effect.
Sophistication
One easy way to make your writing seem more sophisticated is to avoid two stylistic constructions that are common to hack writers – as construction and –ing construction.
Example
Pulling off her gloves, she turned to face him.
and
As she pulled off her gloves, she turned to face him.
If you use these constructions often, you weaken your writing.
Another reason to avoid the as and ing constructions is that they can give rise to physical impossibilities.
There are going to be times when you want to write about two actions that are actually simultaneous and/or genuinely incidental – actions that deserve no more than a dependent clause.
Another way to keep from looking like an amateur is to avoid the use of cliches.
When you use two words, a weak verb, and an adverb, to do the work of one strong verb, you dilute your writing and rob it of its potential power.
A simple departure from conventional comma usage can also lend a modern, sophisticated touch to your fiction – especially your dialogue.
There are stylistic devices that make a writer look insecure, the most notable offenders being exclamation points and italics.
Voice
A strong, distinctive, authoritative writing voice is something most fiction writers want – and something no editor or teacher can impart. There are, after all, no rules for writing like yourself. Voice is, however, something you can bring out in yourself. The trick is to not concentrate on it.
Remember, your primary purpose as a writer of fiction is to engage your readers in your story the best way you can. When your style starts to overshadow your story, it’s defeating that purpose.
In order to write with a mature voice, you have to mature first.
Too many straight declarative sentences in a row, for instance, will flatten out anyone’s writing.
I hope you find self-editing for writers’ notes useful. You can also follow me on twitter.
References
- Self-Editing for fiction writers – Self-Editing