Spiderwize's Self Publishing Blog

As writers, whether in the self publishing industry or not, we frequently come across both spelling and grammatical quandaries. Do you spell program as program or as programme? If you describe an event from history, do you describe it as a historic event or as an historic event? Moreover, does it actually matter which way you do it? Is there a right and wrong way, or is it all just down to individual taste or personal choice?

Taking the historic problem as the example, this of course comes from a fairly famous grammatical rule which you will, as a writer, certainly already be well aware of – that we should use “an” before words that start with a vowel– an eagle, an ambulance, an American, and so forth and so on. With words that do not start with a vowel, we always use just a – as in, a book, a wing, a whiny American, and so forth.

Things get slightly more confusing when it comes to word starting with “h”. This is because of the sound of those words as spoken as opposed to the spelling of the words makes it seem as though they begin with a vowel – the sentence may read like “he was an honourable man” but it sounds like “he was an onourable man”, which is why we tend to use the an instead of the a. That said, while this is definitely the most accepted way of doing things, a not insignificant minority will use “a honourable man”, believing that the sound is overridden by the spelling.

p.s. The choice belongs to you… or a honourable editor.

Being well versed in the correct use of punctuation is a vital tool in the trade of being a professional writer, whether you are in the self publishing field or otherwise. Using punctuation incorrectly – such as adding multiple exclamation or question marks to the end of a sentence when just the one will suffice – is a very bad habit. Why, I hear you ask?!!?? Because it is the clear indication of an amateur and one thing you do not want as a writer is to have anyone – be they other writers, editors, publishers or readers for that matter – to regard you as an amateur. Sometimes it is tempting to add an extra exclamation mark as you may feel that a particular sentence is in need of extra emphasis than one exclamation mark on its own seems to lack somehow, but not only is this very unlikely, but the fact is there are better ways to go about doing this. For instance, bold face, initial capitals, or even italics can be used to add extra emphasis to a sentence without the need for unnecessary additional punctuation. Do You See What I Did There?

Of course, using even one exclamation mark may not be necessary depending on what you are writing in the first place. If you are writing some kind of non-fiction “how to” business guide, it is highly unlikely that you are going to need such marks at all.

p.s. Using punctuation wrongly makes you look like a hack!?;:’”,.*

Editing is important. I think we’ve probably covered that here before, and its particularly crucial for those of us into self publishing, but while that fact remains undisputed, editing is of course the final stage of the game and without the writing itself, editing doesn’t mean very much at all. What I’m trying to say is that one should not get too carried away with the importance of editing to the exclusion of all else. Indeed, there is a school of thought (and one that just for a change I do actually share myself, by the way) that a writer should not start worrying about the editing process until long after the main bulk of the work (the actual writing) is complete.

The writing itself is often far more from the heart than from the analytical, critical mind, and too much emphasis on the editing early on in the writing process can ultimately detract from what should be an almost instinctual process. After it’s over, you can go back, edit, and clean it all up to the best possible standard but the writing should be straight from the heart.

One way to encourage this kind of writing is to brainstorm. Brainstorming words or even just images related to the story you are wanting to tell can produce some surprising and striking results and is one of the most highly recommended methods for kick-starting the whole creative process. Over the coming days, I’ll take a look at other recommended ways for writing from a more instinctual level.

p.s. Being technical is fine for the editing process, but writing is about heart and soul.

Writers, particularly those in the field of self publishing, can, by necessity, never get enough editing tips – which is very fortunate, as I can never get enough of writing about them! Here are a few more useful ideas that will assist in the editing process.

It should probably go without saying, but I will say it anyway – always use a spell and grammar checker on Word or whatever other word processing software you are writing with. It is a bad idea to be solely dependent on these automated spell checkers and you still need to cast your own appraising eye over the work after they have finished their task – but on the other hand, if you have a tool, it is foolish not to use it.

Another tip is to have someone else look over your work. Even if you give yourself a couple of days away from it and then examine it, you could still be too close to your work and end up missing some mistakes that might be glaringly obvious to someone with a little more perspective. This does not necessarily mean that you have to go out and hire yourself a professional editor or proofreader – a friend or relative may suffice.

One tip that many writers find useful when it comes to editing is to use a screen to cover the text that you are not checking, thus preventing distractions.

p.s. There are never enough ways to check your work in order to ensure it is in its best form when presented to the public.

Editing one’s work is important, and never more so than in the self publishing game, since the writer is often the only editor that is going to look at the work before it is presented to the public at large. That’s a pretty scary thought when you think about it, which makes it all the more important to do the job properly in order to ensure that the writing is of the highest quality possible before others get to see it and judge you on it. Fortunately, there are some relatively easy to follow tips to revise your work.

Reading your work aloud can be a good idea. Just re-reading the text isn’t enough – sometimes you can be too close to it to see something that isn’t particularly well written, or doesn’t really make sense, but when you read it out loud it can be much easier to spot passages that simply don’t work or read very well at all.

One basic rule of editing that will probably always apply is – when editing, you lose text, don’t gain it. This means that you don’t start adding material in. The purpose of the editing process is to lose content that’s overwritten, too wordy or doesn’t make logical sense, not to start rewriting from scratch (not unless you suddenly realise that the whole thing is rubbish, anyway).

p.s. There’s no room for sentiment in editing – you must ensure that the harshest critic of your work is you.

One of the things I’m going to do with this blog now and again is write down a few tips for all you keen writers and would be entrants in the self publishing game, to try and make life easier for all of us. With that in mind, let’s get started.

One of the simplest but most effective tips is this – don’t start editing your writing as soon as you’ve finished it. After you have completed your masterpiece, leave it for a day or two before you start going over it with an editor’s eye. Why? Well, because you might find that in those few days your mind is still working on your story and you might actually come up with a few better ideas to improve your work. If you immediately begin proofreading, that analytic process tends to kill your creative side and you might just miss some ideas that could be of benefit.

Then, of course, it is time to do the editing. The most important aspect of this is to make sure that you have used the correct grammar, punctuation and spelling throughout your work. This may seem obvious, but the consequences of doing it wrong can be disastrous. You might have written the most uplifting, elegant, superbly structured, masterfully plotted piece of fiction ever devised, but if it’s littered with spelling mistakes in the first chapter, the reader is just going to think “This guy’s hopeless” and give up.

p.s. Editing is the key – when the time is right.

The following tip is taken out of our “Tips for Editing your Manuscript Guide”

Avoid writing long sentences. Short sentences are easier to control. The meaning can be lost in a long, drawn-out sentences (what we call ‘high tension’ sentences). Especially in novels, shorter sentences help the action to move forward quickly. Also, always use a verb in your sentences! Authors often think it’s fine to leave out the verb is or was. [‘Feeling tired.'] is not a sentence, unless it’s a part of dialogue. [‘The man was feeling tired.'] is a complete sentence.

The following is not a complete sentence:

So, hardly an encouraging atmosphere then, and not a very good foundation upon which to begin one’s education on the pleasures of the table.

The following is a complete sentence because it includes the verb was:

So, it was hardly an encouraging atmosphere, and not a very good foundation upon which to begin one’s education on the pleasures of the table.

If you are editing your manuscript and you think the sentences are too long and unwieldy, consider breaking them up into smaller sentences. (It’s like uncoupling the coaches in an overlong train! Make sure that each uncoupled part has it’s own ‘engine’-i.e. verb and full-stop etc.)

Free Manuscript Editing Guide

The above editing tip is part of a collection of free tips to helping you edit your manuscript. Download our free tips for editing your manuscript.