When stuck in the endless cycle of edits, I choose a few ways to get through it. I find that the breaking up of styles helps to see the story in different ways, thus it becomes easier to find errors, plot holes, character disconnects, and places that need improvement. After setting the draft aside for a week to a month, I usually do all three steps, but changes on how far the manuscript is the process of completion.
The export: my favorite program for writing is Scrivener. I love it. When I get to the end of a draft, I compile the chapters and export to a word doc. I find I need a place separate from Scrivener to help me read through the draft without editing. It rarely happens that I can make it through a full read without making a change. But the chance to read through it gives me a clear view of how the story is as a whole.
Print: Usually this is edit is within the first few drafts, and maybe at the end. I like to have a paper copy to read through with highlighters. There is something about seeing the story on paper that brings out a whole different feel to your work. If it’s possible, I like to do it at the end as well. Though, my little printer struggles with so many pages, as book one was over 400, so I have to take it to a print shop at that stage.
Text to speech: Does anyone else use this feature? It can be done in both Scrivener and Word. Hearing the story out loud help spot the parts where words are repeated, missed, or misspelled. It also highlights the parts in the story you didn’t catch that don’t flow or are repetitive. I loved doing this with my first book, and look forward to implementing it near the end draft of book two.
Side by Side: I often will have the word doc I read and made notes on, side by side with the next draft of the book. This is also the method I use when I get work back from my editor. Working back and forth is the best way to add in edits to the new draft. Often times, I’ll get inspiration through this progress for places I happen to be stuck or just don’t flow the way I anticipate. Many times, it is easy to update the draft with ideas that I already noted in my read through. Thus, it gives me a back up, for if the worse case scenario happens, my work somehow gets deleted. I keep a folder of all my drafts now, because this has happened so many times. However, it was when I worked in Word only. I haven’t had it happen since moving to Scrivener. But, I’m not taking chances.
What ways do you edit? I’d love to hear if there are more efficient ways to get through a book edit. I always want to reach perfection with each edit, and I have to remind myself that isn’t possible. Even with ten eyes on your work, you will never catch every mistake in a book. Though, going through as many edits as you can, will help reduce those to as few as possible.
So, if you see errors in books, I hope you know it bothers us as much as you. But at some point we have to let it go and move on to the next book. Hopefully, the story engages you enough that the errors are soon forgotten. 🙂
