SELF-EDITING TIPS

FORMATTING:

• Document should be double spaced.
• Times New Roman or Arial font. Font can be changed after edits if you prefer other, but these are easier to read when my eyes are on the screen for hours. I appreciate the consideration.
• Remove extra spaces between paragraphs – Use the Line and Paragraph Spacing Icon on your tool bar.
• Change double spaces to single spaces between sentences using a Find/Replace command. Run process until you get no results.
• Do you ever write on your phone or tablet? Check for straight quote marks and change to curly quotes using Find/Replace & wildcard feature
• Convert en dashes with spaces to em dashes (i.e. –  = —) using Alt+0151 (for PC) or Opt+Shift+Dash (Mac) in a Find/Replace command. You can test this in one location to make sure it works right for you before you do a Replace All
• Ellipses: ( . . . ) should be written as word, space, period, space, period, space, period, space, word. If the ellipsis falls at the end of a sentence, then eliminate the final space
• Look for backward quote marks after dashes, and correct (I wanted to—“). You’ll need to insert the quote between the word and the dash, then replace the dash and remove the incorrect quote mark.
• Remove extra spaces at the beginning of paragraphs
• Make sure all chapters end with page breaks
• Extra carriage returns

WHAT TO CHECK FOR IN YOUR DOCUMENT:

• Song titles, book titles, etc. should be italicized or in quotes, but not both.
  
• It is NEVER okay to use song lyrics in your work unless you have permission from their owner. Same with quotes from books. This is plagiarism.
• Change all instances of OK to okay.
• Please run a Spelling/Grammar check on your manuscript so that the editing process begins with as clean a document as possible.
• Always place a comma after the item preceding the and in a series, (even if you feel it is correct to leave it out). I follow the Chicago Manual of Style, and their recommendation is to use the serial (Oxford) comma.
• Omit phrases like “seemed to,” “tried to,” and “began to,” which actually weaken your sentence. Instead, use the past tense of your verb to make the sentence more active.
• As you write, pay close attention to cause and effect, and write events in that order. Same goes with action and reaction of your characters.
• Avoid the use of weak pronouns. Using “it” or “that” (or “they,” in some instances) as a subject makes writing weak. In most cases, the sentence is strengthened by deleting the vague pronoun and identifying the object.
• Watch use of the word “had” when reflecting in the past. Had is used either to show that something happened in the past or that an event occurred over a period of time and then ended. As a rule, using ‘had’ once in a sentence puts the action in the past. Twice is repetitive and clutters the writing. To merely show that something occurred in the past, use the past tense of the verb and omit the added ‘had.’
• Passive writing: Some (many) instances of will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must, or ought = passive. Fix it if you know how. If you don’t know how, I will fix them and probably leave you little margin comments as learning lessons. I find it’s easier to learn something if you (I) understand the reasoning behind the concept.
• Also, any form of the verb ‘to be’ plus an ing verb (auxiliary verb) = passive. Change these to past tense – am, is, are, was, were rooting; root=rooted.
• Fair warning: I am an adverb Nazi. Adverbs used to prop up a weak verb should be replaced with the word that means what you intend to say. A couple of simple examples:

Talked softly = whispered/murmured
Walked slowly = trudged/slogged/tiptoed