Friday, February 3, 2012

Setting out to edit one’s manuscript can be a daunting task, but it can also be quite rewarding.  By the time a person has finished writing their manuscript, they should be intimately aware of the story, characters, plot, etc.  Hopefully, the author is in love with what they’ve written, for by the time they’re done rewriting the manuscript, they will have read and re-read and read again the entire manuscript a good number of times.

This reading and re-reading process doesn’t happen quick or at a pace one might assume when reading for pleasure.  Instead, when reading one’s manuscript during the editing process, great care is given to each and every word.  Is it necessary?  Does it further along the story?  Is it in keeping with the style of the characters, plot etcetera?

Though a writer may be in love with what they’ve written, treating each and every word as if it’s a priceless gem to be treasured, they must adopt objectivity when editing.  This isn’t to say that words should be cut from the manuscript in a ruthless manner or indiscriminately.  They shouldn’t.   Great care must be taken when choosing which words, sentences, paragraphs and possibly even entire chapters must be eliminated for the greater good of the finished product.

During the editing/rewrite process to my book, Little Girl Lost, there were portions of the story that I read fifteen or more times!  Other sections, I only needed to go over seven times to get things to flow the way I wanted.  This is the reason I say a writer must, must, must be in love with what they’ve scribed.  There aren’t many books I’d care to read more than once, much less seven to fifteen times or more.  But that’s exactly what a writer must be prepared to do with their manuscript if they maintain any real ambitions of getting it published.

Tune in tomorrow for a continued look of what it takes to get one’s manuscript(s) published.