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On Editing |
from |
Fallacies, Fables, and Fiction: |
A complete guide to writing
your first book |
The essence of editing boils down
to this: |
| Get rid of every word you don't need to tell your story. |
| Do nothing to give the reader the chance to
give up on your book. By the time your book is ready, you could easily have spent ten hours on each page. Don’t give the reader reason to close the book and walk away. Any time a reader stumbles— • poor grammar • inconsistencies and continuity problems • unclear dialogue attributions • irrelevant material —you give the reader a reason to stop. If the reader can skip a word and not miss anything, he can skip a phrase, perhaps a sentence, a paragraph, then whole pages. |
| Here are a few examples of unnecessary words that sneak into first drafts: "free gift," "advanced planning," "totally unique": gifts are free, planning is always done in advance, and something that is unique cannot be more or less unique. |
To read more about editing
and so much more, order Fallacies, Fables,
and Fiction now: |
| |
Fallacies, Fables, and Fiction, 8 1/2"
x 11", 132 pages, 1.5MB PDF |
Copyright © 1982-2008 Walton Mendelson, except
as noted. All rights reserved.