Get to know your Manuscript first. Sure, you wrote it, but do you really know all about it?
- Ask where your Manuscript has been and who else has edited with it? Has it been sent too many times around the crit circle?
- Low Self-Worth as a Writer – initial symptoms range from locking prior Manuscripts into a literal or virtual trunk to the intense desire to hit the delete key;
- The overwhelming desire to hack and slash through the manuscript without regard for its well-being, you just want to purge it of any signs you may have been up too late writing it;
- The worst case scenerio: the belief the manuscript is just fine the way it is and you print it out to mail to agents and publishers.
Don’t jump in with your red pen as soon as you meet your Manuscript. Let it sit for a little while. Let that editing tension build up between you.
Wear your thick skin as protection against the diseases transmitted by editing:
Never edit while under the influence of such things as a ‘i-like-it’ from your mother, best friend, or spouse. You just never know what such statements can do to you.
And if you stop editing too soon, or can’t finish with the edit, don’t worry. It happens to some writers all the time. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Spend time with your manuscript or perhaps try another one.
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Anyone have more to add? 😉
You self-edit only once???!!! I always try to wait a few days between creation and first edit (except for blog entries, which appear with warts and birthmarks). When I’m editing someone else’s writing, usually involving proofreading too, I may go through the work up to five times. My own I do at least three, but then I’m pretty anal.
Heck no! I edit far too many times. Umpteen is a good number.