I wasn't sure where to put this, so I apologise if it's in the wrong section. This is a little tip I came across a year or so ago whilst editing. I found - as stupid as this sounds - that changing the font before editing actually helps me spot more mistakes and awkward wording. I suppose it's the same concept as printing your work out before reading through it. I'm not sure why exactly it helps, but it does. For example, I wrote my work in Times New Roman and changed it to Courier when I printed it out. I guess it helps because it alernates from what you're used to, so you automatically read with more care.
With Microsoft Word, you can enable Reviewing mode, and all the changes you make will be in different colors with annotations. Then you can go through and accept changers to revert everything to normal appearance.
Ah, cool. I print my stuff out before I edit it though. And I have a crappy old version of MS Word anyway lol.
Lucy, you rock. I've been struggling with my reviewing lately and this helped. You are now receiving a virtual hug.
I experimented with this on a chapter I thought was alright and found a mistake I hadn't seen before. Nice tip
I find that I catch typos I never saw before by reading something backwards, from the last word to the first. It's very tedious and you probably wouldn't catch awkward wording or phrasing that way, but it helps with the sneaky little things.
Reading out loud with expression also help find those nasty phrases and repetition. Though, if you're reading to someone, the other person would be rather confused.
This is what I do a lot. A lot of the time I read too fast to pick up on mistakes, but when I read out loud I can catch things that sound funny and I can re-word things better.
Another interesting "editing" tip is to use your "Page Setup" function in Word to create actual book-sized pages. For example, set margins on both sides and top/bottom to "2 inches". This creates a "page" size of 4 1/2 by 7" - very similar to paperback novels. Then, cut and paste your manuscript into this template using your favorite font set around the same size as you would get with Times New Roman at 10. When you read your story in this simulated paperback style, you will be amazed at the results. For example, a paragraph that might seem okay in a full sized manuscript could take up an entire page in "paperback" format. Obviously, it would be better for the reader if you break up that long paragraph into several shorter ones. Also, the flow of dialog looks very different in paperback-format that in full page manuscript format. This tip came from my editor on The Last Human War. In fact, she said she reformatted the entire manuscript into this paperback sized layout before she began editing. She said this gave her both the actual writing to consider as well as the final "look" and "flow" of the book in its intended print format. This method also allowed her to give me a close estimate of page count for the printed book. She said 511 (including interior title page, table of contents, blank pages and copyright page, etc.) and the actual came out to 512 pages.
a novel approach... one i've never come across [or thought of]... makes some sense, i guess... bottom line is whatever works best for each writer is 'the best' way... hugs, m
