When a chef prepares a gourmet dish, she tastes it to make sure that it is just right. Does it need a bit more spice? Does the sauce need thickening? Editing your writing is a similar art. You have finished a first draft (for our Stories To Tell authors that’s a transcript of their recorded stories) and you want to make sure that you get it just the way you’d like it.
Put aside any unpleasant memories of that high school English teacher who marked up your essays with red ink. (We know, we’ve been there.) The best way to mark up a manuscript is with green ink – green is the color that gives you permission to go ahead and do what you like. You’re not trying to find fault. You’re adjusting the book, like the chef who seasons the recipe to her liking.
The first stage of editing is sometimes called a substantive edit. It is a “macro level” look at your first draft. Think of this as a time for revision, literally to see your stories again. Sit down with a pen in hand and read your draft, making notes as you go. Ask yourself, “Do my stories communicate what I wanted to communicate in the way I wanted to communicate it?” Some of the things you will want to look for as you read are:
- Does the draft “hang together?” Is it coherent? Are the stories presented in a logically consistent order? If not, how might they be better ordered?
- Are there places which might confuse the reader? How might they be revised to produce greater clarity?
- Are there places where you haven’t told the reader everything she will need to know to fully understand your story? If so, which details might you need to add to make your meaning more clear?
- Are there places where you have told the reader too much? Have you gone off on a tangent which has taken you away from the story you wanted to tell? Have you repeated yourself? Will your book be clearer if you cut out some excess?
For Stories To Tell authors, this process is completed in two stages. First, you review the draft yourself, then you discuss it with your personal editor, who has also reviewed the transcript of your stories. Together you agree on the clearest and liveliest way to tell your stories.
The second phase of the editing process is a “micro level” edit called a copy edit. The focus here is on the sentence and word level. It is important to copy edit only after the changes from the substantive edit have been made to the manuscript.
Your transcriptionist and editor will have already copy edited the manuscript. However, there are word choices, and particularly proper nouns, that only you would know the correct spelling or meaning you intended when you told your stories. In the end, you are the best judge of your manuscript, so this final copyedit should be done by you.
Again, sit down with a pen and make notes on things to be changed. This time, look for:
- Undesirable / unintended words or phrases
- Errors in content, such as facts or names that are incorrect
- Errors in spelling or punctuation
When you’ve identified any changes you’d like to make, your editor will then revise the production copy.
The goal of a copy edit is to make sure that your manuscript is perfect before it goes to the printer. You will receive a final, fully edited manuscript from your editor. We recommend you give it a final read-though, just in case we, or you, missed something. Call your personal editor if there are any changes to make to the final product. We’ll have your book printed when we know it is the best that it can be.
