One of the best parts about being a writer is the potential to continuously grow and learn. When I first sat down to write, my editing checklist was teeny tiny. Since then, I've added to it from tidbits of information I've picked up along the way.
Below is the process I'm currently using. I invite you to weigh in with any additional steps/editing tips you may use. I'm always open to suggestions!
Steps 1-7 are completed using the “Search” function in Microsoft Word.
1) xxx. When writing my rough draft, I mark my manuscript with “xxx” whenever I hit a roadblock, I need to research something further (but for whatever reason, I couldn’t at the time), or I want to give a sentence a little more love
2) Begun/started. Get rid of these words. A wise critquer once told me, “It is never began (or begun) to [action] or started to [action]. It either happens or it doesn't. There is no in between.”
3) Contractions. Combining words is great. It saves on word limits and keeps the writing nice and tight. I keep a list of common contractions so that I can easily identify and replace the instances that make sense.
4) Passive voice. More or less, this type of voice provides a second hand report of my story. I don’t want that. My "search and destroy" kicks off with a search of “By." At this stage, sometimes I’ll also hone in on “be, being, been."
5) Wards. Chop the “s” off of forwards, backwards, and towards. I add this "s" subconsciously.
6) Limit/replace words. Instead of using words that tell, show what's going on. These are the words I look to replace: hear/heard, see/saw, smell/smelled, notice/noticed, feel/felt.
7) Causes/caused/causing. Another example of "telling" not "showing" can occur when saying, "[action] caused me to..."
Then, as I’m editing line by line, I keep steps 8 through 13 in mind:
8) As if/seem. I picked this writing tip up from Seeking the Write Life
(Thanks, Aimee!). Especially in first person POV, it’s important to
avoid telling the reader what’s going on in another character’s head, or
telling the reader how to interpret another character’s body language.
As Aimee says, “If you’re using the names of feelings, or words like
‘as if’ or the various forms of ‘seem’, then you might be telling.”
9) Passive voice (again). Searching for keywords in step 4 gets the ball rolling. Now I concentrate on variations of “to be” + a past participle. Generally, this appears as “was/were” + a word ending in “ed.” Other common “to be” words: am, is, are, be, being, been.
10) Was/is. Chances are, I used this word a lot without realizing it. As I’m editing, I try to keep a keen eye for each instance. Typically, a sentence featuring “was” can be rewritten to showcase a stronger verb. Also some spots where I’ve written “was” + an “ing” word can be simplified to just an “ed” word.
11) Redundancy. I try to look paragraph by paragraph to ensure that I don’t start each sentence in the same manner. And also that I don’t use the same word repeatedly. Wordle.net is a fun resource that creates a word cloud to identify commonly used words.
12) Consistency. When I’m writing my rough draft, I maintain a list of correct spellings, capitalization, and punctuations for numbers, phrases, names, etc. It only takes a second to check each instance against this list as I’m going along.
13) Comma splices. Oops, chances are I used a comma to join together two thoughts. I spliced ‘em together. So how to fix? Perhaps a period would work (“I waited for any type of recognition, she offered me nothing.” becomes “I waited for any type of recognition. She offered me nothing.”). Try adding a conjunction ("I waited for any type of recognition, but she offered me nothing"). A subordinating clause may also be used ("Because she offered me nothing, I waited for any type of recognition.").
Finally....
14) Spellcheck. Yep, good ol’ spellcheck. This is generally my final step before another round of review.
One of the best things about having a checklist, is that, oftentimes, these thoughts stay top of mind during my writing sessions. Hopefully if I catch myself in the moment, it'll lead to a solid first draft.
Got any additional advice for me?
