My biggest problem is spelling and grammatical errors. Worst of all is when they’re in something I’ve edited. For example, I’ll have a problem with sentence structure as far as the flow goes, and all end up doing one of my most common careless mistakes “the” instead of “they.” Like I said, though, the most infuriating thing is that this is in a mistake within an edit.

It seems as if every reading begets edits, which in turn begets another reading, which begets more mistakes, which begets another reading, which begets more edits, which begets more mistakes, and so on and so forth in a never-ending cycle.

I know as an author and, if a can be pretentious for a moment, an artist you have to finally say, “This is it. I’m finished.” And go about your merry way, hoping for the best, but it feels like I can’t even get to that point. Adding to my aggravation is the novel is a bit over 140,000 words, it’s very difficult…

Any suggestions????

Try this:

[1] Print the thing out - all of it - and then turn off the computer. You will not turn the computer on for another week at least.

[2] Using a red pen and notebook, go through the entire manuscript. Mark everything that bugs you - sentence structure, plot problems, everything. Mark on the paper, make notes in the notebook, whatever works best.

[3] Rewrite the manuscript from page one - do not edit the old manuscript currently on your hard drive. This is important: As long as you're trying to pick your way through edits on the word processor, you're never going to have anything you can think of as the Real Text. Your first draft WAS the Real Text, but then you started the infinite edit process, and now I suspect you no longer remember the actual inspiration of the story's structure - how could you? You kept changing it.

So, no word processing until you've got a fully edited manuscript on paper, and then reWRITE the thing (do not think of it as editing at this point).

Do not type a single sentence until you know precisely how you want that sentence to read. As soon as you start the edit-daisy-chain on your word processor, you're back to the problems that generated this thread.

Cameron

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and then reWRITE the thing (do not think of it as editing at this point).

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Good, good call. I was never one for a draft writer. There was alaways permanent draft and then that would be edited as needed.

Yikes! That was harsh, and I apologize. At this point, your friends have given you all of the potentially useful feedback they can offer. Just finish the thing - really finish it, then join a writer's group,like the ones here in Hatrack, and have it gone over by them. Keep an eye out for majority remarks - if enough people say the same thing, there's probably something to it.

The word I should've used was proof reader.

My best friend, Matt, is a fellow writer and the most meticulous person I know when it comes to spelling and grammar. Rarely do I find any careless mistakes in his stuff. He’s one of those people that can get most things right without really thinking about it or disrupting his flow. As for me, I throw caution to the wind because if I thought too much about spelling and grammar I’d lose most of my thoughts before they ever got to the page. Also, he’s really blunt, and can stomach reading something over and over…

I assume that Matt has read your work before and commented on your spelling and grammar. Since when you write, your words still do not flow out in the form of flawless English, may I assume that your friend has not helped you in this respect? Since it sounds like you know the rules, but simply have trouble following them in a session of writing, I would insert another step in between reading your novel and rewriting it....practice!

Revision/rewriting is when you focus on the scenes, chapters, characters, plot unity, etc. -- namely, all those things that go into the STORY itself.

Proofreading/editing is when you focus on the language: sentence structure, diction, spelling, grammar, etc.

I find it is impossible to do both of these things as the same time, which I why I don't. Sure, I'll correct errors when I see them, but once I finish revising my story--once I say, I have the story the way I want it--then I go through it one more time editing and proofreading.

Here's the benefit of this. You have to read and think differently when you edit/proofread than when you revise/rewrite. (Well, at least I do.) I can spend hours at a time revising, but I can only edit a handful of pages at a time. But when I focus exclusiving on editing/proofreading, I catch 99% of the mistakes because I'm actively looking for them.

So ask yourself -- is my story complete? Am I finish revising it? If the answer is yes, then it's time to move to the editing/proofreading stage.

Working this way has allowed me to edit on my computer because the only thing I'm doing is fixing the mistakes. (Revision is a different story, by the way. I've never rekeyed an entire story, but sometimes I thought it would've been easier.) Before sending it out, you'll want to proofread it one last time, of course. But if you've done the job carefully the first time, you shouldn't find a lot of errors.

PS -- "Editing on the computer" means that I have already marked up a hard-copy of my manuscript with BRIGHT RED ink.