I just finished going through BROKEN with my red pen of doom and, let me tell you, my head feels like it's on backwards. Mainly because my process goes kinda like this:
Step one: Once you have your book typed, let it stay on your computer for a while. This way, you can skim it while rubbing your hands together and whispering, "Yesss. One day...one day," to no one in particular.
Step two: After you've worn yourself out with all the hand-rubbing and talking to yourself, check to make sure to have lots of paper and ink on hand. (WARNING: THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT! If you run out of either halfway through, something close to you will probably get torn to pieces.) If you don't, go to the store and pick some up. If you do, get to work on coming up with excuses for not printing for the next few days.
Step three: Now that you're out of good excuses, it's time to print! Before printing, you must collect these things: coffee, toast or some other snack, cigarettes & ashtray (optional), something firm to bite down on so you don't grind your teeth, pain pills to treat the unavoidable headache.
Step four: It's printed! Now, go to everyone in your household and twist their arm (literally, if you have to) until they agree to read it. Live alone? Ask your friends! None of those either? Go to the park and harass strangers!
Step five: Collect opinions. Ask everyone who read it every question you can think of twice. Eventually, they'll throw something at your head and order you out of the room, but you will have most likely already gotten all the information you need.
Step six: Grab a red pen and your favorite highlighter, because it's time to READ! Go over each and every page with a fine-toothed comb, picking out all those typos and misued/overused words and inconsistencies and other "book lice."
Step seven: Go back to your computer and change everything you changed on paper. Would it be easier to do this at the same time you're deleting/changing things on paper? Yes, but doing things the easy way is no fun. Wait until afterwards and make things hard for yourself--it's more fun than a car full of alcoholic party clowns!
Yeah, hopefully your process doesn't look anything like mine. Mine is horrible. Oh! And speaking of horrible. I realized there are a few things I overused like crazy--the word "horrible" being one of them. That list also includes: after a moment, little, bit, sigh, nod, and groan. Little was the worst. Seriously, I wanted to smack myself for calling pretty much everything "little."
Little kitchen, little bag, little cup, little house, little camp, little vial, little nap...
UGH! The word SMALL does exist, too, you know!
I mean, how did I NOT notice I was doing that? Eh, whatevs. I got the problem fixed and that's all that matters. I'm also still trying to cut words, but I think I ended up adding just as many as I cut. (I felt like I needed more description.) I dunno, we'll see.
But I'm happy either way. The story is better than it was and that easily outshines any silly overused words or long, tedious editing process.
What does your editing process look like?
What words do you overuse?
HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar