Tariff Act of 1872

I think we all hate paying taxes, but fruit importers got a break from theirs when a clerk misprinted a hyphen as a comma instead. The early United States began imposing tariffs (taxes) on imported goods as far back as 1789. Over time, these laws were modified and had to be copied into new documents.

Well, maybe they didn’t have their coffee that day, but a poor clerk writing up the new tariff made a boo-boo and added a comma where it shouldn’t have been. The original law (from 1870) had exempted “fruit plants, tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation.” But in 1872, a stray comma came in after “fruit,” which made importers argue that all fruits (not just full fruit plants) should be exempt.

People made arguments and debated on both sides. Congress eventually changed the comma, but not before refunding over $2 million ($40 million with inflation) to importers they had taxed while the comma was in place. 

Maine Dairy Deliveries

Big corporations will do anything to save a buck—except check their commas. In 2014, five drivers for a dairy company sued the company for overtime pay, which they claimed stemmed from the lack of the Oxford (serial) comma in their contract.

The contract said that overtime did not apply to workers involved in the “canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of” perishable foods. 

Notice how this list does not have a comma before the “or”? Well, that lack of the serial comma in this sentence implies that the overtime exemption doesn’t apply to those who ONLY distribute and do not pack the items.

The courts officially agreed with this reading of the document and awarded a $5 Million settlement covering 127 drivers. So, before you go arguing for or against the Oxford comma, make sure your meaning comes first and your preference comes second.

Mahomes v. Rodgers

We’ve all seen the “let’s eat grandma” example of comma usage. When we’re talking about eating with our grandma, we need what’s called the “vocative comma” to indicate we’re addressing her. Without it, it appears as if we’re about to ingest our family. That isn’t a critical example because the likelihood we’ll actually be eating someone’s grandma is pretty low. 

But the possibility of a new sports rivalry was pretty high in 2023 when NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes omitted a comma from his post about Aaron Rodgers. This was the original post:

“Hate that man… praying for the best ?”

Kind of ambiguous as to what was going on here. At first glance, it looks like Patrick is dissing Aaron and praying that his team loses the game. But then he edited the post with the vocative comma, and it made so much more sense:

“Hate that, man… praying for the best ?”

Now we understand that Patrick hates that Aaron was injured on the first drive of the game (not that he hates Aaron himself) and wishes him a speedy recovery. That vocative comma is critical here to help with understanding.

A new sports rivalry could have been created from this one little omission. Think about it—hundreds of thousands of fans possibly hating each other over a grammar mistake. That is the power of a comma!

So, the next time you think, “Oh, it doesn’t matter if I have the commas right,” think again. One little mark could mean a big difference.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, mermaiding, or posting videos of her cats on TikTok. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @Jeanettediting on TikTok or find her on LinkedIn.

The post Times When Commas Have Been Critical appeared first on DIY MFA.

How then does the author wade through 50+ offers to find the right editor? It all starts with putting up a post with the right details.

Why the Right Post Matters

There’s this thing—sometimes called analysis paralysis or the paradox of choice or choice overload— where people sort of short-circuit when they have too many options. Research has also shown that having too many choices reduces the ultimate happiness with the choice made.

Having to wade through 50+ editors means you’re making a HUGE choice. Posting the right post ensures that only the right editors are responding, giving you a narrower and therefore easier, faster, and happier choice.

The right post also sets expectations and provides clarity to the editor. It opens the lines for relevant dialogue and can minimize miscommunications. In the end, it saves everyone time because people are self-selecting out of your project when they aren’t right for it. Which is a good thing!

What You & Your Book Need

In order to post the right post, you need to understand your book and its needs as well as yourself and your needs from the editor. Contemplate aspects such as the following:

• Whether your book is ready for an editor—Is it finished? Does it need to be finished for the type of editing you’re seeking out? Some editors or types of editing will only be appropriate for finished manuscripts.
• What your genre/type of book is—Is the book fiction? Nonfiction? Memoir? Where would your book fit on a bookstore shelf? Editors often specialize in certain genres and types of books.
• Who your target audience is—Are you writing for adults? YA? Middle grade? Knowing your audience can ensure you’re attracting the right editor who works on books for that age group.
• What the triggers are—Offer an insight into the tropes or themes of your book. Think about the topics that someone might not be comfortable reading about.
• What type of editing you need—Identify where your manuscript needs help and what type of editing that matches up with.
• Where your market is—This can determine what type of English your editor needs to be fluent in and the style guide and dictionary they should be familiar with.
• How much your budget will be—Check average rate charts and your own finances to see how much you can or are willing to spend on an editor.
• When you need the manuscript by—Have an idea or even a set deadline for when you need the manuscript back. This way, editors can scroll past if they don’t fit your timeline.
• How you want to work with your editor—Think of any special considerations you may want as part of your service, such as wanting someone who offers Zoom calls.
• What qualifications/skills the editor should have—Do you want an editor who’s also a formatter? Maybe someone who has a particular certificate or has taken specific training courses?
• What type of person you prefer to work with—Think of personality traits you might like in an editor. Do you want someone who’s straight-shooting or someone who gives gentle feedback?

Template for Posting

Here’s a simple fill-in-the-blank template using the information you just figured out about your book and your needs:

I am seeking a [type of] editor for help with my [finished/unfinished][word count] [genre/type of book]. It has themes of [topics and triggers]. It needs help with [what you identified your manuscript needs].

I am writing in [type of English] and prefer [style guide/dictionary choice]. My total budget for this project is [$ amount] and I need the work completed by [end date].

It’s important that my editor [special considerations for services] and I would prefer [qualifications requested]. The editor who’s a right fit for me [personality requests].

I am [a little about you]. I plan to [traditionally or self-publish]. My goal from editing is [what you want to get out of it].

Let’s look at an example of this put together for a specific project:

I am seeking a developmental editor for my completed 78K-word, adult-oriented, beach-read romance novel. It follows the trope of enemies-to-lovers and includes some foul language and sex. It needs help with fleshing out the characters and finding the balance between the description and dialogue.

I am writing in American English and prefer the Chicago Manual of Style used with Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. My total budget for this project is $3000 and I need the work completed by November 16th.

It’s important that my editor will include a Zoom discussion or two to review edits, and I would prefer an editor who also copyedits as I may need additional services later. The editor who’s right for me will be gently honest in their assessment without the concern of hurting my feelings.

I am a stay-at-home mom of three and I write in my spare time. I plan to query agents to traditionally publish. My goal from editing is to receive specific feedback on where my novel needs improvement and how I can go about doing that.

Where to Post

Although I mentioned Facebook earlier, this template is good for more than just that. LinkedIn is another great place to find editors. You can even make a TikTok or Instagram Reel with this info asking for inquiries. You can also use this as a query email to a specific editor when asking for help. Same if you’re posting on a job board or going through a professional directory such as the EFA or ACES.

Don’t let an incomplete Facebook post make more work for you when searching for an editor. Give all the information you can so you can find not just AN editor but the PERFECT editor.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting videos of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @Jeanettethewriter on Instagram or find her on LinkedIn.

The post A Template for Asking for an Editor appeared first on DIY MFA.

But what’s average? And what are all the changes this entails? Let’s look first at the numbers…

Number of Average Changes for a Copyedit

Authors worry about receiving a manuscript back simply bleeding with red pen corrections. Is that the truth? Here are some specific stats from real books I’ve edited. Keep in mind, this does not involve “silent changes” (e.g., removing double spaces after sentences), which are made with Track Changes turned off. 

72,500-word nonfiction book… 

• 3,319 insertions
• 2,993 deletions
• 70 formatting changes
• 50 comments

That’s 1 change per every 11 words. The author of this manuscript is a successful businessperson who runs multiple companies. I would consider them a decent writer.

46,500-word nonfiction book…

• 954 insertions
• 719 deletions
• 83 formatting changes
• 2 comments

That’s 1 change per every 26 words. This writer is a marketer, and I would consider them a very good writer.

A 128,000-word historical fiction novel…

• 1,178 insertions
• 1,098 deletions
• 420 formatting changes
• 8 comments

That’s 1 change per every 47 words. This writer is also a professional editor.

A 63,000-word nonfiction book…

• 820 insertions
• 682 deletions
• 96 formatting changes
• 11 comments

That’s 1 change per every 39 words. This author is the founder and CEO of a successful company. This was their fourth published book.

An 82,000-word thriller…

• 937 insertions
• 983 deletions
• 130 formatting changes
• 8 comments

That’s 1 change per every 40 words. This author is very good, and this was a light copyedit.

Whoa! Were Those All Corrections?

Yes, and no. Many of the changes I make as a copyeditor are to conform the writing to standard grammar, spelling, and punctuation so the reader can understand your meaning. We might call these “corrections.” But copyediting involves way more than this.

Copyediting also makes or suggests changes for style, consistency, and clarity. This might mean selecting a different word to better fit the reading level of your audience—definitely not a “mistake,” but still something that should be changed. We also might reorder clauses and sentences to supply better flow or to enhance the author’s style.

Very few copyeditors conform strictly to a style guide because we know that all authors have their own style and voice, which we aim to never erase. Instead, copyediting is about enriching a writer’s words. Thus, I like to think of each insertion and deletion as an “enhancement,” not a “correction.”

So, Copyediting Is Useful?

Gosh, I hope you think so by now! As you can see, the number of changes and suggestions can vary widely between manuscripts. But even the cleanest manuscripts from the most experienced authors still needed hundreds of changes. Don’t be discouraged if you find your manuscript greatly altered by a copyeditor. We’re here to enhance, not just correct, your words.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting videos of her cats on TikTok. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @Jeanettediting on TikTok or find her on LinkedIn.

The post How Much Will My Manuscript Change During Copyediting? appeared first on DIY MFA.

How NOT to Find an Editor

But first, let’s discuss how NOT to find an editor. There is one way in particular that I do not recommend—nonspecific, passive searching. What do I mean? I mean finding an editors’s group on Facebook and posting a generic “I need an editor” post. Undoubtedly, you’ll be inundated with replies, most of which will be a race to the bottom in terms of rates and quality.

If you want to find a book editor, active searching will serve you better.

What You Need to Know Before Searching

Before you actively start searching for an editor, there are a few details you should figure out. These include:

• Your Genre — Knowing where your book would fit on the shelf is critical, as most editors specialize in just a few genres.
• Your Length — The length of the manuscript (in words, not pages) is what determines the price and sometimes the timeline.
• Your Budget — It’s a good idea to have a pre-set number in mind that you can’t or don’t want to exceed.
• Your Timeline — Editing can take months, so be sure you know when you need your edits back to move to the next stage.

Knowing these aspects can help you narrow down the pool of editors you might work with.

Active Searching Methods to Find Editors

Instead of waving your unedited manuscript in the air and waiting for editors to rush you with offers, try active and targeted searching. It’s likely you’ll end up doing less work, be less stressed, and find the right book editor when you follow these methods.

• Ask for Referrals: Find a trusted individual within the publishing world (often another author) and ask them for recommendations. If that editor declines your project, it’s still okay to respond and see if they have any other people they can recommend. Editors may edit solo, but we have vast networks of colleagues who specialize in what you might need.
  
• Search Databases: Find trusted websites such as the Editorial Freelancer’s Association (EFA) or ACES: The Society for Editing, both of which have member directories you can search to find the right editor for your project. This is preferable to putting out a general call on their job boards because you will inevitably have to weed through dozens of non-qualified responses to find the right person.
  
• Network, Virtually or In-Person: Meeting writers and editors through virtual writing groups and in-person events such as conferences gives you the chance to ask questions and engage with people face to face who could end up being your editor or helping you find one.
  
• Follow Editors on Social Media: Many editors have social media profiles and pages across platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more. Search your favorite social media channel and follow editors you jive with. When you’re ready, you can reach out for editing or a referral.

These methods involve active searching, which is bound to turn up better leads and help find you the perfect editor. Why and how does it do this? Trusted professional editors put their efforts into marketing, whether it’s writing blogs, posting on social media, or presenting at conferences. Finding people to follow and reach out to is sure to take less time than sifting through fifty comments on your social media post. 

Just as we avoid passive voice in writing, so too must we avoid passive searching methods in finding an editor. Active searching will help you keep to your criteria so you can find the right person to work with.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting videos of her cats on TikTok. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @Jeanettediting on TikTok or find her on LinkedIn.

The post How to Find a Book Editor appeared first on DIY MFA.

But how do we know when to stop writing and start editing? Is it okay to edit before we’re done with the full draft? When should editing start?

First, let’s look at the phases of editing.

Three Levels of Editing

When we say “editing,” we could mean a variety of things. For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about developmental editing, line editing, and copy editing.

• Developmental editing is big-picture stuff.
• Line editing is sentence style and order.
• Copy editing is grammar and punctuation.

Every piece of writing—be it a blog, short story, or novel—should go through all three of these stages. So, when do we start each?

When to Start Editing

Developmental Editing

For the first step of editing, you want to have a completed work AND have taken a break between writing and reviewing. That break might be anywhere from a few days for a project you’ve been working on quickly, or it could mean stepping away for weeks or months if it’s a project you’ve been working on for years. Take this time to forget your plot so you can come at it with fresh eyes.

During developmental editing, you will be rereading and making changes. I recommend doing a complete read-through first and only making notes on what to change, not actually changing it yet. Trust me, this will save you time and lots of rewriting your already rewritten scenes. Once you’ve gone through and commented, now you can start the editing phase of actually rewriting.

Line Editing

At this point, I’d be surprised if you didn’t need a break from your work. But you don’t always need one between developmental and line editing. Now that you know your plot is solid, you can go through and start looking at the words and sentence constructions you’ve been using and turn them into the words you really wanted to write, the ones true to your character and your author voice. Line editing should only start after developmental editing, though. You don’t want to line-edit something into a beautiful turn of phrase only to cut that scene later.

Copy Editing

The final step in editing is to complete copy editing, which looks at grammar and punctuation. This third step of the editing process should truly come last. Only once you’ve reread and revised your text should you start trying to perfect it grammatically. Otherwise, like with rewriting too early, you might change or cut a section later, making your detailed copy edit there null and void.

Final Thoughts

Knowing when to stop editing is as important as knowing when to start it. Keep the editing stages in order, and don’t start one until you’ve finished the one before. It may be tempting to skip ahead. Don’t. Slow and methodical wins the day.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post When Should I Start Editing? appeared first on DIY MFA.

After all, editing is expensive. It takes a long time. What is your editor doing during those weeks or months with your manuscript? What are they doing to earn that high fee? I promise you, editing isn’t sitting around reading books all day. It’s also not making our pens proverbially bleed onto the page as we gleefully correct errors. Editing is a complicated and often frustrating process. Here’s a little of what it looks like.

What Does Professional Editing Look Like?

Since I’m a copy editor, I’ll take you through what a copy edit looks like for me with the average manuscript.

Receive the Manuscript

The first step is receiving the manuscript. I will perform a basic cleanup on the text, formatting it properly (if it isn’t already) and performing basic functions such as replacing any double spaces between sentences with single spaces. All of this happens before the track changes go on because there’s no need for the author to see those changes (and they can be numerous).

Read Through the Manuscript

Next, I’ll read through the manuscript from beginning to end to get an idea of the contents and the author’s voice and intentions. If the edit is a tight turnaround, I may only read the first section of the book before diving into editing fully.

Track Changes Go On

Now, track changes go on, and the editing begins. Editors look for many things at this stage, and the order in which they search for each item could be different for each author and editor. For a copy edit, I’m looking at grammar such as unnecessary passive voice or consistent capitalization; I’m looking for flow such as too many repeated sentence starts; I’m looking for punctuation, including both the correctness and the impact of each mark.

Make Additional Passes

Depending on how “clean” the manuscript already is, I may complete anywhere from two to five passes on it, looking for different things each time. How many passes a manuscript gets also depends on the timeline or quote from the editor. The less time for the edit, the fewer passes I’m going to be able to fit in. Some editors will name a specific number of passes in their contracts.

Manuscript Goes Back to the Author

Once the manuscript is handed back to the author, they have a chance to read through it and make any final changes or change anything back they disagree with. You don’t need to and shouldn’t hit accept all. I usually lock the track changes on during this stage, so you can’t do that.

Final Pass & Cleanup

When you’re done making changes, then it comes back to me, and I do a final scan of the manuscript. In particular, I’m paying attention to any edits I see you’ve made to be sure any basic errors haven’t been introduced. I then “accept all” on the manuscript and send the tracked changes and clean copies to the author.

What Does it Take to Be an Editor?

In addition to how I edit, I’d like to cover what it takes to complete the above steps. Editors have different traits that make them adept at different types of editing. But most editors will have these basic skills.

Decision Making

Editing is a lot of decision-making. Yes, a lot of decisions are made for us by style guides and grammar rules. But there are a LOT of exceptions to English writing “rules,” and editors are tasked with finding the right answer to a question with no certain conclusion. Therefore, a lot of editing comes down to style. Editors are constantly trying to balance what is correct with what is the author’s voice.

Detail Retention

Did the apartment switch from the second to the third floor in two different chapters? Did you capitalize a made-up term somewhere but have it lowercase in other places? These sorts of details need to ring bells in an editor’s mind so they can create consistency in the work.

Empathy

Editors need to understand their authors. They need to understand what the author’s intentions are behind the words and their meaning and how they are trying to get it across. We must put ourselves in the author’s shoes and think like them to do our best editing without removing what makes the writing special.

A Keen Eye

Great editors can spot even the smallest details, like a wrongly italicized comma. We need to be detail oriented to find what needs fixing. A lot of editing is looking at a word or construction and telling ourselves, “I better look this up.”

Patience 

Editors need to be patient with authors, for sure, but also patient with the work. Editing shouldn’t be rushed. When I work on a manuscript, I work six or seven days a week, but I only edit up to four hours each day. This is about how long we can do Deep Work.

Resilience

Editors need to have a thick skin. Sure, most people think it’s the authors who need to steel themselves up against our edits, but it’s really editors who need to be resilient to feedback on our edits. After all, we’ve invested into your manuscript, it can be devastating to hear an author changed back most of the edits. But it happens. Editors need to be resilient to it.

Some editors refer to themselves as gardeners, helping manuscripts grow into full books. Other editors see themselves as miners, digging the true message from your words. Overall, editing is a long and complicated process. (And we haven’t even covered developmental editing, line editing, or proofreading.) But rest assured, your high-charging editor is doing much more than just adding a few commas or making a few comments. 

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post What Does an Editor Actually Do? appeared first on DIY MFA.

I like to break the scientific method into these steps: asking a question, performing research, establishing a hypothesis, conducting an experiment, making an observation, analyzing the results, and publishing the findings. When we look at the writing and editing processes, we see the same steps are necessary to get our words out into the world. 

Here’s how it breaks down…

Ask a Question

For writers, this question is usually “what if?” What if dragons were real? What if I could write a love note disguised as a grocery list? What if this amazing thing were to happen to this ordinary person? What if… You get the idea. Our question is essentially our idea however fully formed or half-baked it might be. 

Perform Research

This is the step where we make sure no one has run our exact experiment before. This is a great stage to start looking for comps. For novels, we must make sure our premise is different enough from other authors’ ideas, but still speaks to what’s hot on the market. For short stories, we might start exploring different journals that would fit the vibe of the piece we want to write.

The other purpose of research is to prep ourselves for what we’re about to do. Want to write a romance? Read in the genre. Want to write short stories? Read literary magazines. Want to try a literary style you’ve never used before? Read a craft book or article on how to do it. Reading is the equivalent of doing research for our writing ideas.

Establish Your Hypothesis

A hypothesis is an educated guess of what we think the outcome will be. In science, it’s usually a sentence or two. In writing, this is the step where we write our whole first draft. We’re putting down what we think are the right words to get across our ideas in the way we imagine. We’re starting with “once upon a time” and closing with “the end” and not judging (yet) any of the words in between. Further investigation is needed before we start evaluating whether our hypothesis was right.

Conduct an Experiment

Yay—the editing portion of the scientific method! Editing is like conducting an experiment. First, we have our control group (first draft). Now, we apply our experimental process to similar groups (aka copied drafts). 

At first, we may be looking for any type of result. We may be making wild changes to our experimental drafts—cutting out characters, inserting themes, rearranging sections—just to see what the results will be. Once we see what we’re working with, then we can experiment like Gregor Mendel, breeding our pea pods (words) together in new ways to see if we can reach perfection.

In seeking perfection, remember to only change one type of variable at a time. Start with the big variables like character development and world-building before moving on to another draft where we’ll work with more detailed variables such as word choice and punctuation. We would never conduct an experiment with a limited number of people or just one group, so don’t be afraid to revise multiple times and try different structures, tones, voices, or POVs each time. 

Experiments are messy by design. They are a time to play around without judging the results quite yet. Even Mendel had to leave time for his pea pods to sprout. At the end of our experiment, we should put away our drafts for a time (you decide how long) before coming back to evaluate.

Make an Observation

Now, it’s time to step back and see what happened with our experiments. In a real science experiment, we would make rational and objective observations and record them. Since we are often too close to our own written works, even after leaving time between evaluation and experiment, it‘s best to leave this step to an outside party when writing. 

Find a trusted critique partner, writing group, or editor to help assess the results of the experiment. Ask for written feedback on what works in each draft or take notes during a verbal critique. An evaluation from an editor can also help objectively record the results of our experiments. 

Analyze the Results

Once we have written observations (critique) we must decide how to combine the results of our experiment into our final draft. As we analyze the results, we take the feedback presented by our writing partners or that we assessed ourselves and we look for trends and patterns. Did more than one person agree third person was the best POV for the piece? Do we have multiple comments about a particular sentence we know we should leave in? Understanding the results of our writing is critical to getting it presentation ready. 

Present the Findings

Here, we’re going to finalize our draft and polish it to a shine. This is the culmination of all our hard work. We created this beautiful experiment and saw how our original hypothesis blossomed into something new. It’s our duty to now share our findings with the world. In the final step of the scientific process, we must publish our work. Whether it’s querying and submitting or self-publishing, don’t skip this critical step.

There you have it—how to apply the scientific method to writing and editing. 

Tell me: What do you compare the writing and editing processes to? 

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post Applying the Scientific Method to Writing & Editing appeared first on DIY MFA.

An edit by any other name would be just as damn difficult.

But seriously. What do we mean by “writing” and “editing”? Are they really as black and white as the separate words make them appear?

Yes, and no. 

Writing and editing are forever intertwined, causing debate and confusion over what these two activities mean. In some cases, people treat them as a single process. (FYI: They’re definitely not.) But it’s also impossible to totally separate the two.

So, let’s define each of these processes and compare them to be sure we’re writing and editing to the best of our respective abilities for each task. 

What Is Writing?

My fingers move across the keyboard to obey my brain which is generating thoughts in the form of words that the computer is recording—that’s writing. Put simply, “writing” is the act of initially getting words onto the page. It’s the process of crafting ideas and characters and worlds out of nothing but randomly firing synapses in our brains. 

Writing is HARD! Creativity can be a fickle muse and block our ideas from ever making it on the page. When we write, we want to be in the zone and focused solely on the act of creation. Editing is a bit different.

Okay, so, What Is Editing?

A word or sentence already exists on the page and I am now evaluating that word/sentence to determine if it is exactly what I want and expressed in a clear manner—that’s editing. Seriously, anything past putting the initial word on the page is absolutely considered a revision, not writing. Editing, therefore, will comprise the bulk of what you do to a story or manuscript.

Like writing, editing is difficult but in different ways. Our minds need to move from the function of creation to a more logical function of evaluation and decision making. A lot of writers will tell you this is the harder task.

Why Should Writing and Editing Be Separate?

Now that we understand what writing and editing are, it’s important to recognize where these two processes are intertwined so we may separate them again. Does this sound familiar?

You sit down to write. After a couple of paragraphs, you get stuck, so you look back at those new sentences and start tinkering with the word choice or the punctuation. You add on a few more paragraphs and then realize what you just wrote conflicts with something else somewhere in the story. So, you scroll back to that place and start rewriting that scene. Once that’s done, you move back to your current spot and type out a few more paragraphs. Stuck again, you look back and reread and start tinkering…

This is an example of what happens when we mix the writing and editing processes. Most people will tell you this is a bad idea. Writing and editing should be separate for a reason. That reason mostly being efficiency.

Even the most dedicated plotters will have sections of their work that need to be cut. Going through your work too early for smaller edits like grammar and punctuation will be wasted if that scene never makes it in the final book.

There’s also the idea of “context switching.” When we change from one task and move onto something unrelated, our brain needs time to reset itself which can lower efficiency. While writing and editing seem closely related, the mindset you need for each (creation vs evaluation) is vastly different. Therefore, switching between the two wastes time as your brain tries to catch up.

Why We Can Never Fully Untangle Writing and Editing

Although keeping the writing and editing processes separate is often good for efficiency, it’s not truly possible to untangle them fully. During the initial writing—even if you don’t edit the words on the page—your brain is still making decisions about what words to put down, evaluating them before choosing one. And during the editing process, you will likely need to switch on the creativity and come up with new words or ideas to fill in gaps or add plotlines. 

Despite our best efforts, we will never be able to truly separate writing and editing. The best we can do is recognize where they overlap and be mindful of separating them again when they do mix.

Tell us in the comments: What about you? How do you define “writing” and “editing”?

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at the computer, you can find her crafting, teaching a scuba diving class, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

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1. You managed to write all of this!

If you haven’t already, I want you to stop reading this immediately and go celebrate that you finished a project and are moving on to editing. That is a HUGE accomplishment! 

All those words (good and bad), those came from you. You poured your heart onto the page and that took guts and dedication. 

Always keep in mind that you birthed that manuscript or story into the world all on your own. That is powerful.

2. No one’s first draft is good

There may be moments of greatness in your first draft, of course. But no writer, even professionals we idolize, gets everything perfect on the first try. 

It’s a hard pill to swallow when we look back on our writing and admit it isn’t very good—yet. 

But that’s the key. It’s only a first draft. No one expects it to be remotely good, let alone perfect. Don’t beat yourself up about it. That’s what the editing process is there for.

3. Editing is the fun part

In this humble editor’s opinion, the editing process is where the fun of writing really begins. 

During the writing phase, your mind was throwing out anything it could find at the moment to make your point. 

Now is the time to take all that word-clay and start digging in, molding and shaping it into the artwork you imagined. After all, is there anything better than that feeling when a sentence you revised is so good it gives you goosebumps?

4. Editing is NOT a never-ending process

The writing process has a clear demarcation when it comes to an end. All stories, whether short or novel-length, have a conclusion of some sort. 

But the editing process… it’s not so clear when it ends. 

Yes, you could go on forever making a little tweak here and a small wording change there, but you will need to one day call it quits. Setting a goal and having a specific series of edits in mind can help you draw that line in the sand. 

5. All great writers had an editor

With the rise of self-publishing, I can no longer say that every book published has been through the hands of at least one editor. 

But I’ll bet any writer worth their salt can point out exactly which books had an editor and which didn’t. The Amazon and New York Times bestsellers? They definitely had editors! 

Don’t think you have to or even should go through the editing process alone. Editors are your friends and they serve an important purpose.

Tell us in the comments: What do you keep in mind during the editing process?

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post #5onFri: Five Things to Keep in Mind During the Editing Process appeared first on DIY MFA.

Here’s why we get trapped when it comes to this question. There’s no such thing as a perfect book. No such thing as an errorless manuscript. The “rules” of writing, even when it comes to grammar and punctuation, are fluid, which means there is no final “perfect” version available to us no matter how hard we try.

If there’s no such thing as perfect, then editing could go on until infinity. So, I ask again, how do we know when we’re done? The answer isn’t as easy as “it always takes this number of passes looking at these aspects.” But here are some factors that come into play when we decide enough is enough so you can stop editing.

How You Publish

Not every writer will need to complete by themselves or pursue with a professional every stage of editing—depending on how you are trying to publish. 

If you are self-publishing, your book should go through, at minimum, a developmental edit (big story ideas), a line edit (paragraph-level issues and wording), a copyedit (grammar and punctuation), and a final proofread (to catch any last errors). You’ll want to have a mixture of self-editing and professional editing for these stages.

If you plan on traditionally publishing, your novel will also need these four stages, but you might have the help of your agent’s and publisher’s editors for copyediting and proofreading. You’ll still want to complete at least a developmental and line edit before trying to attract agents.

Law of Diminishing Returns

If we still need to do all this editing ourselves, how do we know when it’s done? This is where Gabriela would mention the law of diminishing returns. As simply stated as one can get with an economics principle, the law of diminishing returns is something like: when you invest effort into something, after a certain point—if nothing else changes—the profit from that investment will begin to decrease.

There are three stages to this principle: increasing returns, diminishing returns, and negative returns. Increasing returns happen on your first or maybe first few passes through your manuscript. You’re making big changes that are objectively altering the book for the better. 

Diminishing returns begin when you reach the peak of your knowledge. Remember the phrase from our definition—“if nothing else changes.” If we aren’t acquiring new skills to apply to our manuscript, then applying our given knowledge will begin to have less of an impact as we continue.

We need to stop ourselves somewhere along the curve of diminishing returns before we slip into negative returns. This occurs when you’re “editing your manuscript to death.” Even bread dough has a point at which you can over-knead it. Don’t fall down the slope of negative returns so that you no longer recognize your beautiful work.

Goal Setting

It can be difficult to find the balance between making changes that help the manuscript and making changes for changes’ sake. Identifying when to stop is easier if you simply set a goal and stick to it.

For developmental editing, your goal may be a quick read through for structural issues (followed by a rewrite) and then a deeper developmental edit for any further plot holes or inconsistencies (followed by a rewrite).

Line editing, which includes word choice, could go on forever and ever. Again, it can be helpful to name a number of passes through the manuscript as a goal and then call it quits. Whether that’s just once or many more times completely depends on your level of comfort with this stage of editing. 

Same for copyediting. Once may be enough to get all your commas in the right place. Or you may need multiple passes, some with the help of a grammar checker. When it comes to proofreading, make it a goal to set aside some cash because, let’s be honest, it’s better to hire a professional.

In the end, it’s all about goals. Tell yourself you will only do “X” number of passes for each level and stick to that. Otherwise you could find yourself on the revision hamster wheel.

That Gut Feeling

It’s difficult to tell you when to stop editing because there’s something to be said for that gut feeling. I, as an editor, cannot feel your gut feeling and therefore cannot fully advise you on what your manuscript needs.

But you know what it needs. I know you know. 

One day, you’ll be reading through a paragraph and think “that’s really good,” and that’s when you stop tinkering and move on to the next stage or start querying/press publish. 

Because we tend to doubt our guts or forget where we felt our gut speak up, I like to highlight sections in green when I know I’m done with them. It helps kick imposter syndrome to the curb when you see how much of your own writing you’ve perfected.

Overall, I wish I could give you a better answer. But the only way to do that is to have a professional look at your manuscript and evaluate your self-editing skills. Even then, it is ultimately up to you when you call it finished.

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

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