Now that the joy of finishing my first draft has faded, the angst of editing the manuscript has begun. I completed the first draft, the rest should be a piece of cake. Right? Not. Even. Close.
All of a sudden I had a multitude of questions and not enough answers.
First I tried an easy approach. I purchased “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing”. While it was an interesting read, it didn’t answer all the questions that arose while editing my manuscript.
I also went to Chip MacGregor’s blog. He recently posted a huge list of resources to help writers. http://www.chipmacgregor.com/blog/career/150-resources-to-help-you-write-better-faster-and-more-persuasively/
Finally, I went to my friends Beth Vogt and Edie Melson for assistance.
They suggested I look at the big picture and keep it simple. We all need simple, right?
They broke it down into three pieces for me; the big picture, fine line editing and believe it or not a craft partner!Big picture editing refers to your actual story. Have you included the main ingredients: The Dark Moment, Happy Moment, Greatest Fear, the Final Battle, Essential Scenes etc?
Fine line editing refers to the nitty-gritty details, like grammar and punctuation.
Craft Partners. Once you’ve completed those, it’s time for someone to read it. Before selecting a craft partner establish guidelines. What guidelines though?.
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- What specifically will a craft partner assist with big picture editing, fine line editing? One or both?
- How often should you meet? Should you have one craft partner or more?
On top of that, I had other questions:
- How do you format the document?
- Which font should you use?
- What do you include in the header/footer?
All of my questions couldn’t be answered in one sitting therefore we decided to answer these questions in the next several blogs. Starting in July we will tackle each of the items above.
Do you have questions you want answered? Send them my way via email at retreats@mybooktherapy.com . I’ll put the questions to the experts!
