Super Guest Star Saturday 10/10/09: Allison Dickson

This week, our guest blogger is Allison Dickson, who is my closest friend and editor.  She has personally gone over every single thing I've written.  I trust her with my manuscripts and would trust her with anything else.

Some may question the business sense (and the common sense) of a freelance editor advising writers on how to edit their own work. After all, I not only want to help edit your manuscripts so that I may prosper as an entrepreneur, but I also believe that an impartial second set of eyes on your story is essential to producing a great final product. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have built a business around it.

That being said, I am aware of all the snags that go along with seeking out an editor. For one thing, you have to open yourself to criticism. You have to be ready to hear, often from a complete stranger, that you're probably not as amazing as you think you are (even though a good editor should also remind writers of their strengths). You have to not only be willing to hear this advice, but you also have to be prepared to implement it. And with that comes an inalienable truth (and hopefully an acceptance on your part) that even though we write behind closed doors, we finish them out in the open.

Other times finding an editor has nothing to do with exposing our emotional vulnerabilities as writers; it's about the money. Unless you are already a big celebrity or politician with carte blanche to publish everything from questionably authentic memoirs to drunken dirty limericks written on cocktail napkins, chances are you're working a day job that doesn't allow for the budget to pay even an affordable editor like me. If that is the case, don't feel discouraged. You can still do it yourself. You just have to take certain steps to avoid the pitfalls that can make self-editing an ineffective endeavor. Be patient and be prepared to do a LOT of reading.

Step 1:
After you finish your rough draft, don't touch it or so much as think about opening that document for at least six weeks. I mean it. Actually, you should follow this protocol even if you do have an editor, because you need to pretend that what you just spent the last several months doing never actually happened, and you can't do that with an editor breathing down your neck. Remove yourself as much as possible not only from the plot and the characters, but also from the cadence of your own writing. Distract yourself by starting the next book or story. Preferably something completely different. If you just finished a psychological thriller, consider writing a comedy or maybe even non-fiction--something that changes your rhythm enough so that when you come back that brewing novel, it reads like somebody else wrote it. Once you get to that point, your eyes are fresh enough to tackle the edit.

Step 2:
Print out the story and get yourself a sharp red pencil. Make sure that the manuscript is at least double-spaced to allow for enough writing room. Yes, that's right. I know that there are a ton of great editing tools built-in to Word or whatever program you wrote the thing on, but trust me on this. While I can certainly edit your manuscript on my computer, I have the luxury of being unfamiliar with it. But in self-editing, printing out your manuscript lends yet another fresh perspective to your work, which you desperately need. I think computers and word processing programs have gone a long way toward making us lazy writers in the first place. While I don't expect you to revert to cranking out novels on a typewriter, going old school for the edit is a big help.

Step 3:
Do a "macro" edit first. Your idea the first time around is to look for basic plot holes and extraneous elements that you'd like to cut out or re-arrange. You're looking for character motivation issues, stilted dialogue, and other things that don't ring true or that make your story a laborious read. If you've followed Step 1, these things should jump out at you quite easily. Remember, you are not paying attention to grammar or punctuation here. You are looking strictly at the story as a whole. Expect to make lots of circles, slash marks, frowny faces, self-affirmations, and/or story notes in the margins. When you're done, your manuscript will probably look like you bled on it (literally and metaphorically), and that's what you want.

Step 4:
It is now okay to return to your computer document. At this point, start implementing the major revisions you made in the print manuscript. This could take awhile, as you may have to rewrite or eliminate entire chapters or change major elements in your plot that made sense the first time but don't so much now. You may even find as you go that you're making even more changes. At any rate, this is the point where your story takes on a whole new life, leaving the smelly swamps of First Draftville for the vibrant city of Second Draftopolis.

Step 5
After you have a revised second draft, you can now go through and start making your basic edits, such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation. You want to smooth out all of those rough edges. It is a good idea before you start this step to let the manuscript sit for another week or so, again because you need to freshen your eyes to catch as many mistakes as possible. The more you read your own words in a short period of time, the more they start to blur together. Do not trust your brain to not hamstring you during this critical time--it will. Have patience, relax, and then come back and do the final read-through. In the meantime, keep working on your next project.

After Step 5, you need to do what you did in Step 1 and just walk away. Don't fiddle with it anymore. Give yourself permission to call the project done, complete, abso-fricken-lutely finito! You've done all you can. You do not want to start picking at your book like it's a giant scab. All writers could do that if they wanted to, but if they did, none of us would have any books to read. At this point, it's time to start ferrying out your story to trusted first readers. Spouses, moms, dads, BFFs, colleagues. Tell them that your story is more or less done and that you aren't looking to make any major changes, but that if they see any basic spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, or if there is anything else that seems blatantly wrong, to let you know. You may receive manuscripts back with extra suggestions and edits anyway, but don't feel obligated to implement anything subjective unless you're hearing the same thing from at least two readers. Chances are, if two or three or more people are making the same complaint, you lose. Eat your humble pie and then make the necessary changes. Remember, once you finish a book and let other people read it, it's no longer "yours." Especially if you want to get it published.

Once you've received and implemented all input from your inner circle, it's time to rejoice, for you have a shiny, new novel ready for an agent's desk! Now you can move on to the really fun stuff: synopses and queries and agents and publishers and MORE editors! After reading all this, if self-editing seems intimidating or like too much work, then consider hiring a professional and letting him or her bleed all over your manuscript for you. Really, we don't mind.

Allison Dickson is the owner of Allison Edits, a professional editing and proofreading service.