Month: January 2022

Why Proofreading Is Essential

Proofreading gets your manuscript or other written work ready for publication. It deals with the presentation. It’s the final edit before you print.

Some confusion exists between editing and proofreading. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Editing is what you do first and proofreading is what you do last. Proofreading is the final step to polish the manuscript before publication. When the proofreading is done, the product should be ready to go to the printer.

Historically, proofreading came about after the printing press was invented. One arranged the little metal letters in place on the press and then printed a copy of the book or newspaper. That paper product was then read for final errors.

The confusion comes about because sometimes proofreaders find grammar and spelling mistakes. While it’s their job to do so, it’s not their primary function. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the like are the jobs of line editors and copyeditors to correct. The proofreader just makes sure they didn’t miss any.

The other, major task for the proofreader is tending to the physical appearance of the book and its machinations. That description applies to both paper and digital.

Proofreaders make sure your chapters all start with the same format, that your use of commas is consistent, that your table of contents or index leads where it says it does, that your margins are correct, and that elements of the book have continuity throughout.

Proofreading is necessary whether it is done by the author or by a professional. In today’s digital world, book text can be dropped into a preformatted page and most of the work will be done automatically. However, ask any published author and they will tell you that you still must proofread the result. For that reason, when a book is finished, even in today’s world, authors order a final copy to look over. When the printer sends a perfect copy, it’s a gift. That will rarely happen on the first round.

Using a professional who understands the format of the medium where the book will be published is a good idea. You will find, with so many devices out there, that the visual outcome of the digital version varies dramatically. You will have far greater control over the printed version, and you should exercise it! Take the time to proofread your book or go to the trouble of having others proofread it for you. You will be glad you did.

Creative Assets Inc does not currently offer proofreading services. See prices for other types of editing here.

Why You Need Copyediting

Copyediting is an essential part of editing. It checks your grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You might be more in need of it than you realize.

Does your writing need copyediting? Definitely. Ask yourself these questions;

  • Have I spelled everything correctly?
  • Is my grammar perfect?
  • Have I put commas in all the right places?
  • Is all of my other punctuation correct?
  • Have I left behind any incomplete sentences?

That list isn’t for beginners. It’s for everyone. Even the best writers need copyediting. If you’ve ever heard someone say that writers should not edit their own work, they are probably talking about copyediting. It is absolutely essential on the road to publication. It’s also nearly impossible to do own your own.

While all writers should do their own editing, it is a well-known rule that you need someone else to do a round of copyediting for you. For smaller pieces, like short articles and blogs, writers might self-edit if they are knowledgeable enough, although they are taking a chance when they do. When it comes to longer works like novels, you can’t do without copyediting. Without copyediting, readers will find errors left behind and they will stop reading your book –and then they’ll tell others not to ready your work!

Copyediting is simply part of the novel writing industry. It’s indispensable and unavoidable.

You don’t always have to pay for it. Most writers have a friend who is good at grammar and spelling. Be careful though, they can burn out easily if you push them, especially when working for free. Joining a critique group is another free method. The downside of critique groups is the length of time it takes for the group to get through a book. 1000-3000 words is often the maximum covered per meeting. If you have a 100,000 word manuscript, it could take some critique groups a year to get through your book. One more free method is to exchange books with another author. You will find, however, that you and that other author will not have the same level of experience with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. One of you will be getting the short end of the arrangement.

Free methods work for some authors. For those with schedules to keep or goals to meet, slower, less reliable methods won’t work.

Most writers I know gravitate toward professional editing the longer they stay in the industry. That tells me that the ones who make it lean toward professional editing. Decide where you are in your writing journey and then choose the method that works best for you.

If you are interested in having your work professionally edited, Creative Assets Inc can help. Click here to see rates for Copyediting and more.

Why You Might Need Line Editing

Line editing is designed to clean up a draft. It changes a draft from a bundle of writing to a written work that takes readers not only where they want to go, but where you want them to go as well.

Does your writing need line editing? Probably. Ask yourself these questions;

  • Does the style I use match the genre I’m writing in?
  • Will my writing distract the reader away from the point I want to make?
  • Is my writing concise?
  • Why doesn’t my writing sound better?
  • Why do I stumble when reading my writing out loud?
  • Can I make this seem smarter?
  • Did I write things that will confuse the reader?

A line editing session can help you with all of that.

Line editing will probably be the first editing you do –or the first kind you receive from someone else, that is. It will clear up the flow of your writing or the type of language you use. It can add a conversational tone to your writing when its needed or remove it when its not. It can remove unnecessary additives like “due to the fact that,” “as I was saying,” or “in my opinion.” It can break your writing into digestible paragraphs. That’s just a sampling.

Line editing gets to the heart of turning a piece of writing from something clumsy into something graceful, from something burdensome and boring to read to something that is concise and interesting.

Line editing is a lot like cleaning your house. Straightening your living room might mean putting your throw pillow back in order, or it might mean throwing some things out. That’s a great analogy to line editing. Writing needs to be well-organized and, quite often, it needs the extra fluff removed. For newer writers, however, it may be more like going to the dentist. You don’t want that tooth removed but you sure are glad when it’s gone. The good news about any editing, is that you don’t have to accept the changes. If you get your hands on a good line editor, however, you won’t be sorry.

A number of things can boot a reader out of a book or article; paragraphs or sentences that run on too long, writing that strays from the topic promised by the title, or a tone that doesn’t match what came before or after it. When you say he or she, does it indicate the person you thought it did, or does it refer to someone else by mistake? When you fix those things, your writing will sound better. You can test it by reading it out loud. It should sound smoother after your line editing and those moments that made you stumble should disappear. The result is a smarter piece of writing.

Line editing can be a pain but it’s essential, as much as, if not more than, other types of editing. It’s what turns a piece of writing from a rough draft to a nearly finished product.

If you are interested in having your work edited, Creative Assets Inc can help. Click here to see rates for Line Editing and more.

Why You Might Need Developmental Editing

Developmental Editing is a big job. It points out where a story can go wrong, where its weaknesses are, and even whether readers will be interested.

Does your written work need developmental editing? Ask yourself these questions about your writing;

  • Does it have loose ends?
  • Does it trail off into dead ends?
  • Is the Point of View consistent?
  • Did your plot and subplots all go full circle?
  • Did you add a character that went nowhere?
  • Do the closed arcs satisfy or leave the reader with some other reaction?
  • Is it boring?

Imagine reading a book and getting about three or four chapters in and realizing you just don’t care about the characters. The same can happen with TV shows but it will be for the same reason, and that reason is the writing. developmental editing is meant to save writers from such tragedies.

A lot of elements lend to creating interest, such as relatable problems for the protagonist to solve, a protagonist with flaws that makes readers yearn for that character’s salvation, or compelling cycles of try-fail, try-fail. Does your work hold up to scrutiny of those elements? You’ll want to know before you publish, certainly not after. That’s the goal of a developmental editor.

A developmental editor will advise you if a character’s arc starts and doesn’t finish, if a character seems to have no arc, or if a character’s growth falls flat or just doesn’t happen. The editor will find those moments when character point of view shifts awkwardly, is unclear, or varies from the format you have established earlier in the work.

Most of us have heard of ‘killing your darlings.’ That phrase can sometimes refer to jettisoning elements from your work that are dear to you, but which aren’t doing your story any favors. It can be an unnecessary character or a side plot that has no value. Those things are more evident to a developmental editor than to a writer. Suggested changes can be painful to face, and, in the end, the author doesn’t have to make them. However, a developmental editor will point them out so that the writer is aware of them. That type of advice can be difficult to absorb –at least early on in the journey of a writer. The more you write, however, the more you will value such advice.

Some crazy things can happen in long written works. Characters can inexplicably disappear and reappear –or be in two places at once. Location names can change. A character can change hair color, height, race, sex, or even personality. Author edits can cause such errors. You wanted the character to be a brunette male at first, but then changed your mind to a blond female. You made your changes, but in chapter three, up pops a paragraph with a brown-haired man using your character’s name.

A developmental editor fixes the basic building blocks like theme, point of view, arcs, plot, and so forth to assure continuity and understandability. They do not (or should not) fix your grammar, misspelling, or other such details. That is for later on, in another set of editing. developmental editing comes first, before line editing, copyediting, or proofreading.

The first novel written is always the hardest. Learning about developmental editing and the stages that follow can be a gut punch to the uninitiated. With more experience, however, writers take the stages of editing in stride. Those many steps are necessary and they create a work of art the author can be proud of. If you mention the above processes to an author who published without going through them, you will probably witness a photo-worthy cringe. Developmental editing is well worth any of the trouble or pain it induces. That heartache translates into a far superior product for the author.

You can seek developmental editing after the first draft, but it has more value after you have done a round or two of editing yourself. It has the most value when you believe your work is done. That’s painful to hear, I know. Written into that advice is the suggestion that your work is not done. Such is the journey of a writer.

If you are interested in having your work edited, Creative Assets Inc can help. Click here to see rates for developmental editing and more.