Tag: editing

Forbidden Words in Writing

When wrapping up my first draft of Debut, part or book one of my current WIP, The Great Awakening, my mind started to turn towards thoughts of editing. Polishing and nailing down all the different plot threads introduced before moving on to the next sections made the most sense to me. As this is the first work I’ve ever extensively edited, apart from school reports, I turned to the annals of knowledgeable, established authors on the internet to learn what I could.

There were a handful of tips I found. From the obvious ‘self-editing does not replace the need for a professional editor’ to the less obvious tips for checking for voice inconsistencies in your characters; there was plenty to learn. One repeated lesson stuck out to me: words to avoid in your writing.

Top ten lists are dedicated to the subject, some even go so far as to suggest there are fifty or more words you absolutely should never use when working on a novel or other piece of writing. I was incredulous when I first came across articles and videos on the subject. Surely, words we know and use in everyday life can’t be ripped from writing wholesale? Yet a majority of the articles emphasize they are not making a suggestion; claiming you won’t get published if you don’t heed their advice.

The reasons given for the rule follows a consistent line of reasoning: the selected words can bog down your writing, they are unnecessary filler, and/or they are associated with showing as opposed to telling. Articles that give more leniency admit dialogue is an entirely different beast, taking these words out completely is just unrealistic. Some even suggest using dialogue to sneak in the words you “can’t” use in your narrative voice.

I decided, due to the overwhelming presence of this topic, to attempt pulling these words out of my writing. Right away, I ran into issues. The first of which is the fact many lists can’t agree on what words are forbidden. Yeah, that will put a damper on things.

The first step became trying to pinpoint which words I was supposed to take seriously. Some of the most common words to avoid were: that, very, like, and all adverbs (-ly words). Expanding from there, it was said you should avoid any simple descriptors (big, small, good, nice, many), shouldn’t use any form of ‘to be’ (which is one of the most common verb groups in language), and definitely can’t use any words that ‘tell’ (feel, seemed, thought).  

As you can see, it gets ridiculous in my not so humble opinion. But I was willing to try; after all, I do agree it’s a bad idea to have an excess of repeated words on the same page and as these are all common words, I knew they would be a good place to start with killing the repetition in my novel at least. Some of the words, I didn’t use at all; others, I overused, and, so far, I’ve been liking the changes being aware of these words has led me to make.

That being said, as you can see from this article alone, there are times when I think it makes more sense to leave the words alone than to take them out. One of my biggest observations is taking out every single suggested word can lead to over-flowery writing that is a chore to read.

While I’m still working on perfecting my craft, I find myself in camp “use sparingly and be aware of your word use” as opposed to camp “cut every instance out of your writing.” My suggestion, that I think is far more worth your time, is to use a word breakdown tool on your writing. There are several you can find online; how they work is you post your writing in their script box and it will process your most common words. If you work in Microsoft Word, you can also open the Find tool and type in words to search your manuscript for repeats. Most importantly, read your work. Does a word stick out as repeating too frequently? Do your descriptions lack a vibrant feel? These are both much better indicators of the health of your manuscript than some arbitrary list of words.

Also, don’t forget the beta reader process and to hire a professional editor. Both are again, far more effective than an impersonal list.

Thank you for reading and sharing! I’d love to know what you think on the topic in the comments!

Balancing Writing and Revision

Writing is a long and sometimes difficult process. Some days, it feels like you just can’t write no matter what you do. Others, it’s like a burst pipe streaming content onto the page at all hours. Mostly, it’s a steady medium which is enough to get your ideas down on paper. However, no matter the speed of writing, there is always one thing that needs to be done throughout the process: editing.

While looking through some tips on the lesser known sides of writing, I came across many different ideas on how the editing process should work and what should be avoided. I’m going to point out the top five ‘do’ ideas that have worked for me, and the top five ‘don’t’ ideas that I feel need the most attention.

My Top 5 Editing Do’s

  1. Do a brief edit every few chapters. How many that ‘few’ is will be up to you to decide; five, ten, or twenty could all be appropriate depending on your style and the size of your chapter. Some would put this in their ‘don’t’ category, but I find that it’s helpful to overall story progression to go back over, do a brief look over for typos, and check the overall pacing and plot progression. It’s especially helpful if you’re stuck in a rut and feel like nothing is happening. It can be helpful to step back and take in part or all of the story again to help put the one sequence you’re working on into prospective. It can also be helpful for keeping details like injuries or upcoming events fresh in your mind so you don’t have a scar that disappears for long periods.
  2. Do take a break before diving into your editing. If you’ve been struggling to put words on the page, you’re likely going to be frustrated with your story once you end that chapter. If you’ve just gotten off of a six-hour binge of writing, you’re most certainly going to be exhausted. If you feel like you still need to keep going that day, take a fifteen-minute break to drink water, make sure the blood circulation in your legs is still going, and take care of any other health or sanity needs that you’ve been putting off. This not only will help you to clear your mind and allow you to have a fresh take on the issues at hand, it will also prevent that nasty, aching feeling in your body that will be a major distraction to anything you try to do.
  3. Do edit for one thing at a time. There are many different things that you’ll need to be looking for during edits. Grammar, spelling, flow, overuse of a word or phrase, consistency; all this and more will be striving for your attention. It can be overwhelming when you attempt to switch back and forth between tasks. This is why you shouldn’t do that; especially at the end stages when you are working with your entire work. Take one piece at a time: get rid of those red and blue squiggly lines on your first read through, then search for any word that stuck out to you during that read-through, and then you can move on to more in-depth things.
  4. Do have multiple edit cycles. I’ve already mentioned how you should edit every few chapters and edit at the end for a list of things. To add to that, you will likely have multiple edit cycles like this. You will also eventually involve others in the process and will need to repeat the cycles afterwards. Don’t just look it over once and then mail it to the publisher, you won’t really like the outcome.
  5. Do involve others. When I was younger, I knew what editors were. I was mistaken to think that they were optional. Beta-readers are still a new concept to me, though I did have my mom and a few friends look over my old pieces. That doesn’t tend to work if they are super nice or don’t know how to give feedback. Neither process is optional, and if I’m not mistaken, can also take several tries to make sure your piece is as good as it can be. Skipping either step will likely show drastically when the final product is scrutinized.

My Top 5 Editing Don’t

  1. Don’t skip editing. This may be obvious but it bears keeping in mind, don’t skip the editing part of the novel writing process. People will be able to tell. If you are aiming for traditional publishing, they will be able to tell too. Especially an editor you hire will be able to tell that you skipped the self-editing process and will fill the pages so full with red on small details that there won’t be room for serious edits.
  2. Don’t wait until the end to edit. Again, some may disagree, but I feel that if you don’t go over your work occasionally, you are more likely to have plot holes, inconsistencies, and be completely overwhelmed when it comes to the final edit. Balance is key, so it’s also important that you…
  3. Don’t go overboard with the edits. While multiple rounds of edits are extremely necessary, there has to be a cutoff point. Editing every chapter more than a quick glance over is pushing it, trying to edit every page as you go is only going to grind you process to a halt. You need multiple cycles of the editing process, but if you’ve done five rounds of beta reading with ten self-edits in between, you’re never going to get your book published. Perfection is an illusion, it’s unobtainable. At some point, you’re going to have to take a deep breath and go for broke.
  4. Don’t lowball hiring an editor. You get what you pay for is as apt here as it is in most other industries. If you are searching for editors and one sticks out for having dramatically slashed prices, chances are they are going to have dramatically slashed results as well. Going for the most expensive isn’t the answer either, necessarily, but you don’t want to spend money on something cheap only to turn around and realize you have to buy the more expensive option anyway.
  5. Don’t rush the process. By the time you reach the final editing stages, you’re probably about done with your book, your writing, the colors black and white, and anything and everything associated with the process. There can be a temptation to rush through the final stages and just get through with it. This would be the greatest disservice you can do to yourself and your novel. Hang on for a bit longer and make sure all your hard work has the biggest success imaginable.