By DeAnna Cameron //
Welcome to the first installment of EASY EDITS, a new semi-monthly column that will cover simple grammar, punctuation, and style fixes that can help any writer improve their manuscript with minimal effort. As a writer and a copy editor for more than 20 years, I’ve been on both sides of fence, and I know how exasperating the editing process can be for a creative.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Like many of you, I believe there are no rules when it comes to writing, only guidelines.
Editing is another story. There are rules that I consider Golden Rules that all writers would be wise to follow.
The first and most important is that all writers need editors.
Even if you’re the best self-editor on the planet, you as the writer are so close to your work and have read and re-read it so many times that despite your best efforts, you will see what you want or expect to see on a page (or screen), and not always what is actually there. It’s human nature.
The next Golden Rule about editing is one I’ve learned the hard way far too many times to count, and it applies to editors and self-editors: If you make an editing change, don’t just double-check it, triple-check it. There’s a greater than average chance you will miss another error in the same sentence because your mind will be so focused on fixing one error that it will ignore others around it.
My last Golden Rule is that you can’t expect an editor to find every error. Editors are human, and humans aren’t perfect. You can’t change that fact. What you can do is reduce the number of errors in your manuscript before the editing process begins, so by the time your editor is finished, only a tiny number of errors might still remain, if there are any at all.
In future installments of EASY EDITS, I’ll share some of the most frequent grammar and style mistakes I’ve encountered over the years to help you reduce the number of errors in your work so you and your editor can make your manuscript shine.
DEANNA CAMERON is the founder and managing director of O.C. Writers. She’s also a hybrid author currently writing YA dark fantasy as D.D. Croix and an occasional copy editor who’s never met an Oxford comma she didn’t like. Learn more at www.DDCroix.com.
Kind of in keeping with your piece on editing, I am in search of a couple of beta readers for my current wip. I write crime fiction, police procedural, detective. I am searching for a couple of writers in that genre that would be willing to work out something with me to be beta readers for me. I don’t have anyone where I live (Hemet) and am sure there are said persons in Orange somewhere. As a member of OCW, I make this request. Thank you.