Editing Frenzy: Prompt 3 POV

That's when we are going to check who says what and why and why they say it.

Explanation for each POV.

For first person POV:

1) make sure the narrator doesn't talk about things they are not supposed to know

2) make sure the narrator doesn't read minds but only body language

3) make sure the narrator doesn't describe herself/himself (cause that's annoying): I let my trousers fall along my incredibly, irresistible toned butt while my deep hazel eyes looked at her all over... like really? O.o

If you decide to go for some head-hopping... I never did it in first POV so no idea but make sure that the reader knows who is talking.

For third person limited:

1) make sure it's limited, like John can't know what Sally is doing on the other side of the city. But you can switch to Sally's POV which is fine; in that case make sure to write in her voice (slight change of vocabulary).

2) For several characters in limited make sure to use their voice with their specific vocabulary at all time. If you are doing Head-hopping like me, it's easier to read that way and more realistic. If you separate the different POV in chapter it's a little bit easier to handle in that case you need to have a consistency check (that you don't shift POV that is).

For third person omniscient:

1) make sure you don't shift into third limited. I never did it so I'm not too sure how I would check it but that would probably be the main point.

If you are crazy enough for a multi-character head-hopping madness: 

Check each sentence to verify who you are with and why it's the best suited POV for that particular scene. No choice buddy that's a tough one.

Find us on Google+

Editing Frenzy: Prompt 2 Characters check

That's when we make sure we are dealing with our character and not with his evil twin brother.

List up your characters and their personality as well as their action-reaction type of things

People are extremely dull and repetitive, no, really! If your character hates bananas, he is always going to hate bananas except if someone invented a vaccine to make people like bananas and he got a shot. Make sure your character is consistent, if he starts eating bananas, you know you have a problem. (My demons don't eat fish.)

Same with emotions and motions. 

Example: Isakael's wings always seems to big for him to carry. Seti has a problem to be touched but that disappears slowly....

You can also check for dialogue consistency even though we will go to that later in the dialogue check and again in the style check. If you are using accents make sure you are using them identically at all time, accented words can go to the what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-me word list because they are important. 

If one character is always saying a word keep it going, make it contagious.

Example: My Azazel says “Damn” a lot, so Kamaril says it too (cause he can't stand Azazel but always refers himself to him) and the people around Azazel tend to grab it for a bit...

That's also the moment when you'll have to say “bye bye” to a character. 

Check if his/her presence is justified. For characters appearing briefly, check if people needs to know what happened to their grand-ma, I mean know all their details information including name. If not, use the cut-out file. 

That's also the moment when you need more character or to make one more important. 

You need to make sure that none of the important characters disappear prematurely. If that guy was there all the way to chapter 15 then maybe you need to tell me something about him before chapter 40 because I have a good memory but I have no idea who he is anymore. Keep everything consistent.

If you want to suggest prompts, leave them in the comments, I'll be delighted to add them to my list. 

Find us on Google+

Editing Frenzy: Prompt 1 Plot holes

Read your book and mark every passages which aren't flowing.

Something that should be added to fill some blanks about relationships, or behavior, or events.
Ask yourself why questions about the plot. If you can't find the answer anywhere or if it's somewhere that doesn't make sense, you found a plot hole.

Questions examples: 
Why did the characters arrived here? Why is there no more jam in the fridge? Why do you have an invisible fox making the place such a mess? Why does he has an umbrella if it's not raining?
I know those are shitty examples but I was hungry when I wrote this and you still get the idea: why, why, why.

And don't answer me because, because, because. If it's not written somewhere, it mean only you know the answer and you don't want one million readers to call you at home without caring about the jet lag to ask you why. Or do you?

Second point: don't go adding anything before a complete read through answers might be given in the next chapter and that's still fine. (I do that all the time then need to erase the new thing and it's make everything messy and I ask myself if it wasn't better here or there or before... know your novel first!)

Then add all the missing parts!  

If you want to suggest prompts, leave them in the comments, I'll be delighted to add them to my list. 

Find us on Google+

Editing Frenzy: Introduction, before we start

From tomorrow will start the Editing frenzy in a Writing Group I manage.

If you are editing a novel, written during NaNoWriMo or else and need some help to get going with the madness, or need some clear directions for a first edit, or need to verify that you didn't miss anything, please participate and leave me comments on the Editing frenzy posts so that I can help you and answer your questions.

I know that editing is hell for some people, at least it is for me. So let's get starting on the evil thing and try to make it fun.

Prior to that try to have a read through so that you can have a good feel about your novel.

Here is what you will need to succeed (If I forgot something (at any time) just let me know):

1) A piece of writing to edit.

This one is obvious.

2) A correction file. (If you're like me you'll need a lot of those, some people give them names like second draft, third draft...)

That's where the magic happen. Don't add correction to your first draft original file, that's dangerous. Save it carefully, it's your safety net. Instead copy paste everything in the correction file that's where everything can get dirty and moved around.

3) A cut-out file.

Never ever delete anything cut-paste it in the cut-out file you never know when you're going to use it again and bite your fingers for not knowing where it is in the big draft file.

** Growing as we go to be used during the last part of substantive edit and during copy edit:

4) A diet word list file.

That's where you will list all the words that you are using too much. It will grow as you go and as you will be prompted on particular words during the copy edit.

Words to always be included: was, is, been, had, has, have, that, here (there), it, feel, start, begin, said, told, say , tell, answer... think, thought...

Don't worry we'll check words in category later.

5) A what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-me word list file.

That's where you will list all the words that you misspelled, every time you find a misspelled word, you copy it here. If you misspelled it once, you likely misspelled it twice (everywhere?) trust me on this.

That's also when we will check stuff like (you're, your... , saw, though, thought, so... their, they're)

If you ever ask yourself should I add a word to the diet or what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-me list, don't ask yourself again, the answer is YES. In case of doubt, add, add, add better check twice than having it wrong.

I used to have only one word list but I think having two with two different purposes would make things a bit faster, at least if you don't overlap words but that's still experimental. List can be reused for the next novel so that's kinda cool.

Please do list up your modification and words and what the hell you are doing to your manuscript under the appropriate prompt and if you're in doubt about something specific ask me in the comments.

I'm also going to suppose that everyone had the developmental edit done. That's basically when someone read your stuff and goes: “But it would be nice if....” or “It would be better if...” kind of brain storming to make the all thing better by adding ideas, characters, etc...

Developmental edit is important (that's when John Green added the last quote part in Looking for Alaska) but I believe that it's still better done after the writer edit as it involves other people reading you stuff and you don't want to bother them with too many typos and inconsistency. Let's give them the best work you can get.

If you want to suggest prompts, leave them in the comments, I'll be delighted to add them to my list.

Find us on Google+