Writing a book not only helps you discover who you are but also enables you to earn a decent amount of money while reigniting a deep long lost passion within yourself. It is a great way to tackle new challenges and acquire novel knowledge. However, editing a book once it is completed can be a tiresome task which is why many authors nowadays hire professional book editing services. Nevertheless, if you are up to it and ready to put in your time and effort, here is a quick guide to making things easier for you.

A Quick Fix – Mending the Bigger Picture

Your book needs relatable characters, a strong structure, and a tight plot. If you have achieved this early on then you are already halfway through the process. Now it is time that you deal with the broader issues and this can include the plot, major and minor narrative threats, twists, and conventions of your genre.

Looking at the bigger picture will give you an idea of where your revision is needed. The first thing you need to focus is on the story structure itself and see if all things are set in the proper order. Readers should be able to connect the dots and this is only possible if you set things in motion following a chronological arrangement of events and how they unfold.

Breakdown Editing Goals

Instead of going through with a complete edit of your entire book, it is recommended that you set goals that are achievable without getting you flustered or frustrated. Here you should divide your task into chapters or subsections of your liking. Your goal should always be to make your writing clear, concise, and easily understood.

If your story is the key part of the art that you are showcasing then your number one priority should be clarity. Next up, you need to look at your piece and figure out if it is entertaining and well-written enough or does it provide an adequate solution to a problem or a predominantly promised purpose.

Confront Each Scene/Setting Separately

When you really want to dive down and go deep into the nitty-gritty details it is best that you tackle important parts of your manuscript separately. Some nice ways to do this are:

·        Check if there is too much throat-clearing involved, i.e. background and scene-setting has taken up a lot of page space without moving ahead with the main story.

·        Examine if there is too much stage direction where you are mentioning every character in each scene and what they are doing.

·        Inspect if you are using too much of common settings that can quickly bore readers, for example, the main character waking up to an alarm clock.

·        Investigate if you are not resisting mentioning things that are already quite explainable by themselves.

·        Make sure that your dialogues within the written piece advance the plot, provides information, and reveal character development.

·        Stay clear of adding noise to your writing where irrelevant facts and details are added that are simply fluff and don’t add or offer any substantial meaning to the plot or story itself.

Keep a Look Out for Crutch and Troubling Words

You need to root out crutch words or phrases that you not only overuse but also distract the readers. A simple “ctrl+f” command on Microsoft Word can do the trick to let you know just how many times you are repeating the same words over and over again. They not only weaken your sentences but also leave a bad impression on the reader.

A pleasant way to get rid of them is through the usage of appropriate synonyms that give the same impression without changing the originally intended meaning. Then they are the troubling words like “in to/into”, “affect/effect”, “further/farther” etc. These will always have you second-guessing how to use them correctly. Again you can use your document processor’s search function to locate and deal with them.

Never Forget to Format and Proofread

While editing goes further than a simple proofread, that simply doesn’t mean that you should consider overlooking a mundane thing such as running a spell check for your finalized draft. Not only that but when you are proofreading your work look out for grammatical mistakes, improper sentence structures, and missing punctuation marks.

Furthermore, formatting your book also takes prominence. Here you will make sure that your book follows a homogeneous style throughout from starting to the end. This includes using the same font style, size, typeface, paragraph indentations, page numbering, sentence spacing, spaces between paragraphs, and text alignments. Make sure that if your book offers number listings or bullet points then they also follow an indistinguishable design and style. 

Final Word

Book editing can be a gruelling process for some and they simply cannot bother themselves to put in the time and effort required to go through the entire manuscript. This is where book editing services can help the lot to get things done without a single worry in the world. However, if you are finicky about your written material then I hope the aforementioned tips offer you the insights needed to edit your book successfully.