Wax On, Wax Off: 5 Areas To Polish Before Submitting A Manuscript

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Mr. Miyagi: Wax On, Wax Off (Karate Kid)

Most writers are familiar with the saying, “You only get one chance to impress,” and there is no industry where this holds truer than in publishing. From the agent who reads those first requested pages, to the editor searching for the manuscript that wows, to the reader who has dozens of unread books on their kindle to choose from, there really is no room for anything less than exceptional writing. Putting in the extra time before hitting send can help you impress right out the gate, and keep those eyeballs glued to the page.

Here are FIVE polishing tips I recommend before releasing your manuscript into the wild.
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Click to download this checklist!

Eradicate Crutch Words

One of the simplest ways to strengthen your writing is to search and destroy weak or overused words in your manuscript. These crutch words can come in a variety of shades – descriptions we tend to reuse, directional cues, passive language, overused body gesturing, etc. If you are writing in deep point of view, also look for filtering words that create unnecessary distance (looked, felt, smelled, touched, knew, wondered, believed, saw, thought, etc.) between readers and the character. Weed these out so you are showing what the reader sees, feels and thinks directly, bringing readers into the character’s inner experience. If you need a guide, here’s my handy Crutch Words List.

Strengthen Your Verbs

In the flow of creating, we often choose verbs that instantly come to mind, but these are not always the strongest choice. Your final pass should also include a quick study of the verbs you use, ensuring each one is as specific and active as possible. It sounds tedious, but practice makes perfect and after a few pages, you’ll instantly spot generic ones that will need to be switched out. Using active verbs also means your manuscript can shed some of that unwanted adverb weight. To spark ideas on better verb choices to replace bland ones, grab a copy of our Active Verb List.

Review Your Descriptions
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I hear these thesaurus books are pretty good at helping writers master description…