Rewriting - The Final Steps

We’ve been working on rewriting our draft manuscript and there’s more to do. For instance, while you’re looking at your dialog, check to make sure your characters aren’t telling each other things they already know. In your first draft it might feel like the easy way to fill in backstory, but it’s poor storytelling technique. You DON’T want your story to feel like an episode of CSI.
Now for closer sentence editing, which can begin with a search for weak verbs. The most commonly used verb in the English language is the verb to be.  It is, it was, it always will be.  It’s so easy to use, we are often tempted to lean on it like a crutch.  But nothing just IS.  So go back through your work and see what else that person or thing is doing besides BEING.  Sure, IT WAS HOT that day.  But that sentence is passive AND weak, and a cliché besides.  How about “The weather was hot?” Well, not passive anymore.  But if you said, “The sun baked our skins” or “The heat made the air too think to breathe,” or even, “the temperature soared that morning.” Well now you’ve got some stronger, action verbs in the mix. It’s worth it to take the time to make even the weather an active event.
Now check point of view. Stories are always told from someone’s point of view, even if written in the third person.  One thing my editor always hits me for is switching points of view.  If you have a paragraph that is about Jane’s feelings, don’t tell us in the middle of that paragraph how Bob feels.  Jane can only guess at how Bob feels.  You can always show us what Bob is doing that let’s Jane know how he feels.  But even one sentence from the other person’s perspective will kill your story’s flow.

If you go through all the steps we’ve discussed in the past three weeks your manuscript is probably as good as it can get…EXCEPT… with small word switches  and sentence changes new errors sneak in. So the last step in rewriting is a final spell check and grammar review. Now your manuscript is polished like a fine jewel, ready for others to read.