Self Editing

I finished the damn book.  And it’s off to the formatter.

I thought I’d finished weeks ago but kept going back and making changes and reading it over and over. Every time I’d find something new. I had a couple of friends read it and they sent some errors they caught. So back again to make a few corrections. Here are some of the self-editing I did in no particular order.

I had a couple of names that were very similar. It could be confusing to the reader, so I went back and changed them. Thank heavens for find and replace.

I also used find and replace, for those lovely words like - as – just and - the ings.

I cut and moved sections, so the book flowed better, and it fit the timeline.

I checked for spelling, both with spell check but also by reading it through.

I checked for grammar and punctuation. My grammar is good (I think) but punctuation is my weak point. And I find Word and I sometimes disagree on what I thought it should be.  I’ve got feedback from other writers and apparently things like the use of commas is different depending on editors.

I made notes and went back to check eye color stayed the same for each character, if one man drank scotch and the other whisky, I made notes and made sure it stayed the same through the book.

I went back and read each person’s journey to make sure it made sense and I made sure the conflicts between the characters was resolved by the end.

And I’m listening to the reading of the book. People have suggested three different methods of doing this. I’m going to try all three and see which works best for me.  The ones recommended were Autocrit, WordPress and Office 365.

Now to see what it reads like once it’s in print and how many errors I missed.

I’d love to hear what other people check for when they self-edit.