In a previous post I talked a little bit about editing and I also mentioned that I would be trying a technique that I learned from Caitlin Hensley. She posted it as a tip on her blog, and now I am going to try it and share it with you.
If you've been following my blog you know that I am in the semi-final stages of editing my book before it is published. The method that Caitlin suggested is to go through the entire manuscript word by word and only look at each word individually, not looking or reading ahead at all, or reading for story or content. Simply focus on the words themselves and you should find a lot of typos you may have missed the other times you were editing.Sounds tedious, right? Yes, but I am willing to try it because I think it is a great tip, and that is why I am re-sharing it with you. If all goes as planned, I will be implementing this technique this week, and when Friday rolls around I'll let you know how it went.
Have a great holiday!
- Heidi Nicole Bird
Well, if we want to be successful as authors, we can't be afraid of a little hard work. I can see this being a great method for really focusing on what counts when we edit!
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, did you know that today, in addition to being to being MLK Jr. Day, is also Obscure Authors Day? I guess it's a new thing.
I entirely agree! I didn't know about that holiday. Interesting!
DeleteFocusing on each individual word... Could work. However, sometimes becoming to fixed on the words as they stand also limits one to only using those words on the page already, when there are times that a word is not best choice for the situation in question. A lot of typos I see tend to be spelled just fine... they just happen to not fit the situation in question.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Thanks for you thoughts. This process could definitely have a downside, which is why I am only doing it near the end of my editing. Hopefully by the time I go through word by word I, or my other readers/editors, will have caught errors like the ones you have mentioned.
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