Tales of Magic, Adventure, and Romance

You’ve finished your manuscript, sent it through spellchecker and you’re ready to go, right? Not necessarily. Spellchecker won’t catch everything. It’s a good place to start, it will catch mangled words (and some obvious grammar errors) but it won’t catch homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled different like: there, their, they’re), words that are actual words but not the ones you want, or word echoes. And all three are simple things to fix that will help make your prose look more professional.

For homonyms and typos (as well as other possible issues) you’ll need to do focused edits on your manuscript. If you have time, leave your piece for a while – a few days or a week or more. This will help you to see it with “fresh” eyes when you return. Obvious mistakes can jump out at you if you just take a little time away.

Another technique is to have someone you trust read over your story and make notes. Often times an outside reader can notice homonyms and typos a spellchecker won’t point out, as well as awkward sentence constructions.

But don’t rely entirely on reading and re-reading. The brain can become accustomed to what you’ve written and skim over mistakes. Keep a list of the words you commonly mistake and look for them. Most word processing programs have a find/replace feature. Take your list of words, “find” each of them, and read your sentences to ensure you’ve used the right one. I also use this technique for words I commonly mistype, since spellchecker won’t tell you if you’ve used “bust” instead of “burst” (and that can be an embarrassing error).

Finally, look for word echoes. A word echo is a repeated word. Repetition can be used for emphasis and rhythm, however these instances should be few and far between. For the most part, echoes stick with the reader and stand out, drawing them away from your story.

An example of a word echo is: He ran his hands through his hair. His hair was wavy and black.

This is a pretty basic (and obvious) example. “Hair” is echoed, and in this case “hair” can be replaced in the second sentence with “it”

Echoes can occur within sentences or paragraphs, and they can also happen between paragraphs, pages, and even entire books. An echo through a book is often an unusual word. This word used once or twice and the reader thinks, “what an unusual word, I don’t mind.” Used more often and the reader begins to thinks that you’ve fallen in love with the unusual word and can’t think of any other way to say it.

One way of finding word echoes is to read your manuscript out loud or have someone else (or a computer) read it to you. This can also help with the flow, pace, and rhythm of your prose. By paying attention to these three simple things, your manuscript will appear more polished and professional.

Tags: editing, writing