"JUST A LITTLE OFF THE TOP, PLEASE!”

                         

                                                      The Necessity of Editing

            Much like sitting in a stylist’s chair at the salon or barber, we want to cautiously direct the hands that holds any tool capable of cutting.  Well, sometimes more than just a little off the top is necessary.  Take editing for instance.  We don’t like that word because it means something terrible is about to happen.

Calm down.  As any masterful surgeon will tell you, sometimes in order to make a wound better a little cutting is in order.  The same principle applies when writing manuscripts.  We don’t like it but the finished product is so worth it.

I know, exactly how you feel because I’ve experienced the pain of deleting entire paragraphs or some witty phrase at the hands of an editor.  What I learned, is that most if not all editors know exactly what they are doing.

Word count is the number one reason editors dissect and cut away unnecessary material from manuscripts.  Let’s face it, some can be overly long, filled with prattle, and lack substance that won’t change the outcome of a fantastic ending.

Simply by rewording a sentence, they’ve shortened it without diminishing what you were trying to evoke by overstating.

Editors see things from a different perspective, with a trained eye that can zero in on potential problems and improve the overall readability of your story.

Editing is more than just eliminating excessive verbiage.  It identifies, punctuation, verb and subject disagreement.  The confusion between homonyms, and homographs. Case and point.

HOMONYMS are words that sound alike but have different meanings. Homophones are a type of homonym that also sound alike and have different meanings, but have different spellings. HOMOGRAPHS are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Heteronyms are a type of homograph that are also spelled the same and have different meanings, but sound different. WORDS THAT BOTH SOUND THE SAME AND ARE SPELLED THE SAME are both homonyms (same sound) and homographs (same spelling). Example: lie (untruth) and lie (prone); fair (county fair), fair (reasonable).

You can see by the above definition, how confusing it can all be when writing.

Bet you never realized how much is involved when trying to exercise your creative genius did you?  If you are thoroughly bumfuzzled at this point allow me to add a few more agonizing details.  Such as synonyms and antonyms.

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. Synonyms are words that have the same or nearly the same meaning.

This is exactly why editing is crucial when writing.  When you are in the heat of writing dialogue, sometimes can be unaware of the usage until you read over the material later.  Or, in some cases stay clueless until editing occurs.

As an author, I find it useful to consult my best friend, the thesaurus.  I know it sounds like some prehistoric animal.  But is a useful writing tool.  I am often focused on just writing the story.  Even when I read over the text, what I’ve written seems just fine to me.  But you see, I’m wearing my writers hat, unable to fixate on anything else.  Which isn’t a bad thing but is why I believe in editing.

Whether, you are a beginner or seasoned writer believe me it is very necessary.

Don’t let anyone tell you differently.  I know sometimes we are tempted to cut corners to save money.  But there are other ways of doing this without sacrificing a manuscript you’ve applied countless hours as well put your heart and soul into.

If you are on a budget and can’t afford professional editing, there are other writing tools that are equally effective.  Grammarly, is one of them.  Not only does it help with all the things I’ve mentioned but designed to enhance your writing, by proofreading, listing conformity or the lack there of, throughout the manuscript. I use it quite often when writing.

Here’s a few more that work the same way but they all perform different tasks:

Autocrit: is self-editing software designed to replace a human intervention.  Even with the capability of performing the same task it still isn’t detailed enough to catch every error.

Smartedit: is first-pass-editing software for novel and short story writers. Improve your writing by catching those mistakes early.  Note the word improve, while useful not designed to replace a human editor.

Pro Writing Aid: is your online writing editor and personal writing coach.  This is good but still won’t replace the need for human intervention.

All downloadable applications that integrate into word documents perfectly.

Overall, the suggestions made by editors or editing software is not designed to ridicule your prowess as a writer.  But simply designed to improve your skills and conform your work of art into a masterpiece.