From Edie: PeggySue Wells shares self-editing tips to help writers eliminate overused words, distracting punctuation, and formatting habits that interrupt the reading experience.
Self-Editing for Writers: Remove Distractions
by PeggySue Wells @PeggySueWells
The process of self-editing your manuscript begins with broad and with consecutive edits becomes more detailed.
After you’ve already looked at the larger issues of content, flow, and believability, attention shifts the smaller details that can pull your reader out of the story or message.
Look for Pet Words
Commonly, we have favorite words that are overused. Most writers have favorite words and phrases we reach for without realizing how often they appear.
Search your manuscript for words you know you tend to overuse. Then watch for repetition you may not recognize as easily.
Check the beginning of sentences. If three sentences in a row begin with the same word, change up the opening word. If several paragraphs begin the same, exchange the repeated words for something unique.
Consider this example:
Shanina saw her chance. She dove through the open rear door and grabbed her backpack. The driver yanked back. She pulled harder. His knife swept between her and the bag, slicing through the front pocket.
Shanina fell backward, clutching a fistful of torn fabric while the driver kept hold of her backpack.
Shanina lunged for the driver. He stomped the gas pedal.
Her name appears three times in a short passage, including at the beginning of every paragraph. The repetition becomes noticeable and distracting.
Change to:
She saw her chance. Shanina dove through the open rear door and grabbed her backpack. The driver yanked back. She pulled harder. His knife swept between her and the bag, slicing through the front pocket.
Shanina fell backward, clutching a fistful of torn fabric while the driver kept hold of her backpack.
As both men and Shanina lunged for the driver, he stomped the gas pedal. The vehicle lurched forward, and her life sprayed from the torn backpack pocket into the heat like tossed cards. Passport, phone, charger, lipstick, a folded printout with her initial itinerary, and the pepper spray she couldn’t find earlier.
The information remains clear, but the repetition no longer calls attention to itself.
Remove Visual Speed Bumps
When a reader’s eye moves smoothly across the page, the words have a better opportunity to disappear, allowing the reader to become immersed in the story or message.
Anything unusual on the page can become a visual speed bump and momentarily pull the reader away from the content.
Remove these interruptions whenever possible. When one remains, make sure it serves a purpose strong enough to earn its way onto the page and justify slowing the reader down.
Parentheses. We rarely speak in parentheses, so we typically don’t need to write in them. Ask whether the information belongs in the sentence, deserves its own sentence, or can disappear altogether.
Dashes. This includes em dashes and en dashes. Sentences can often be reworded, or a comma can be just as effective without pulling the reader out of the story.
Exclamation points. Unless your character yells, “Fire!” remove exclamation points.
Italics. Use sparingly, such as for a character’s thoughts or to indicate the title of a book.
Bold. Your reader is smart enough to know when a word or phrase is important.
ALL CAPS. Trust your reader to know when you are emphasizing words.
“Air quotes.” Quotation marks used merely for emphasis distract rather than clarify. Trust your reader to know your meaning.
Underline. Underlining is not used much, if at all, in book manuscripts.
The goal isn’t to ban every visual device. The goal is to notice each one and decide whether it contributes enough to justify interrupting the reader’s eye.
And don’t forget those pet words that appear too often. When a word, punctuation mark, or formatting choice begins calling attention to itself, the reader is noticing the writing instead of becoming immersed in what you wrote.
During this round of self-editing, look for anything that unnecessarily reminds your reader they are reading. Then remove it. Give your reader every reason to keep reading.
What words, punctuation, or formatting habits do you routinely discover during your own self-edit?
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PeggySue is a frequent guest with media including Focus On The Family, Family Life Today, and Christian Product Expo. She regularly teaches at conferences including Write To Publish, Taylor University Writers Conference, Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, and the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. Collaborator on multiple titles including books with Dr. Benjamin Hardy, Shemane Nugent, Pat Palau, and Pam Farrel, PeggySue is a writing coach. When not writing, she parasails, skydives, snorkels, scuba dives, rides horses, and has taken (but not passed) pilot training. Founder of SingleMomCircle.com, connect with PS Wells at WWW.PEGGYSUEWELLS.COM, on Facebook at PeggySue Wells, and LinkedIn at LINKEDIN.COM/IN/PEGGYSUEWELLS
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