Share your tricks for self-editing here!

[[deleted user]]

Hi, I spend a lot of time editing (and I need to spend a lot more). I thought it might be helpful if everyone shared a few of their best editing tips. I have edited and re-edited my YA novel Ill-fated, and yet every time I am horrified at how many more mistakes I find (and I am an English major, I have no excuse!).
Here is the best tip I've got (just learned it and am re-editing now).
Print off you book (yes it sucks and it's kind of expensive). Then starting at the end, read backwards paragraph by paragraph. WHY? Because you won't get pulled into your own story and start reading what you think you wrote! Edit by hand, then make the changes to your word processing copy (without touching/changing anything else as to avoid creating more mistakes/typos via revision).
It is awesome, I am catching so much more than I ever have.
Please add your best idea, I wish I had know this one a year ago before I put out my book!

[Cherese]

I've tried the reading it backwards as well. It works. I have found plot mistakes, not just grammar. Thanks for the tip!

[Arabella]

Oh lord reading it backwards ...now that's something I've never heard One of the best ones is to read it aloud....and better yet, get someone to read it aloud to you. But the other one, as you said, is to print it out...you DO see all kinds of mistakes!

[R.]

I do read it out loud in a foreign accent (I listen to myself better), read it backwards and I have to print it out. That is the biggest one. I can't see mistakes on a screen. Also I have found waiting, let it sit for a while (weeks) and work on another one before you try to final edit. I like to write all over the paper and Highlight each chapter heading when I finally finish.

[A.C.]

One of the things that has helped me is having my kindle read it to me. I upload the files to KDP, save the converted file, email my kindle the book and voila! It's on my kindle. Sometimes the digital voice chooses the wrong pronunciation but it catches a lot of the little flubs. I will listen to it with my eyes closed and then I will listen to it while I read along - thereby making sure I read every word.

Also, beta readers - one of the BEST tricks out there for self-editing. In addition to finding many of the flubs/ errors, they can let you know if your story makes sense to someone not intimately familiar with it - continuity, plot, etc.

I've tried reading backwards but then I always start reading forwards again and then miss the same mistakes that I have missed a dozen times before.

[Cypher]

Not only do I print it out, but I also give a copy to my mother because she picks up on stuff that I don't. Even when I think it's all done and I get a proof copy back from Createspace, I go over it again in book form and still find one or two that I missed the first hundred times I looked through it.

[Arabella]

The more eyes the merrier! Especially beta readers

[[deleted user]]

I love the foreign accent idea, if nothing else it will make it less boring! I've also tried using my computer's voice (like AC suggested) and this helps me a lot, especially for catching places where I think I wrote "through" but instead I have "though" and other similar words.

I haven't tried beta readers, are they free?

[L.F.]

Reading aloud, a print copy, and someone else's eyes all work wonders. Another trick I find helpful is to cover my computer screen with a transparent colored sheet (I've used both yellow and green and prefer green). It forces the eyes to look at the manuscript differently. Sounds a little hokey, but it does work :)

[Arabella]

Beta readers are people willing to read your manuscript...mine have been friends...for complete strangers...perhaps you offer to read their manuscript in return...?

[R.]

Speaking of Beta Readers! Does anyone know any trustworthy Beta Readers? I'm a little apprehensive about sending it out. I have sent a manuscript out to someone on Goodreads before and never heard back from them. Luckily my book was already published.

[Lee]

I change the page size to A5 and then zoom in to nearly 400%

[Marion]

I also use AC's method of reading my book to myself on Kindle. However, I'm confused by his?/her? methodology. By "uploading the book" to the KDP, do you mean it's published? There's a less complex way of doing it. Convert your document to HTML which works better on the KDP to begin with. Then convert it to a Mobi file. There are sites you can google that do this it takes a few seconds. This will give you a mobi version that should be identical with formatting to how it will convert to Kindle. You don't have to email your book to yourself. Just plug your kindle in and move the mobi file. You also don't pay any transfer fee to Amazan.

Other things, I go through looking for "that" and cutting out my unnecessary ones. Sometimes they are necessary for understanding the sentence or for rhythm. If I notice I'm overusing a word, I search for that word. I check for consistency in stuff like: okay/Ok.

When it comes to actual copy editing, once everything is fine tuned I go back to see if I could get rid of 10% of my remaining words. If I HAD TO cut, what would I cut? Usually that gives me a tighter version without the boring stuff.

[A.C.]

Marion wrote: "I also use AC's method of reading my book to myself on Kindle. However, I'm confused by his?/her? methodology. By "uploading the book" to the KDP, do you mean it's published? There's a less complex..."

When you upload the doc files to kdp there is a place where you can save the files to your computer as a mobi before you publish. I attach the file in an email and send it to my kindle - no cords involved, no charges, and it arrives within minutes (seconds?). It's very easy.

[Lee]

As funny as this sounds, I play a lot of hidden object computer games, it keeps your mind sharp and you learn to spot things that don't belong, like a missing word or incorrect usage.
I also do the whole, let it be for awhile and then go back and read it line by line focusing on each sentence and not connecting it to a story. Once that painful process is done I do a read through with the express purpose of letting myself get lost in the story, sections that need work are the ones that pull you out of the flow.
When you think it is perfect engage a Beta Reader and find out how much you still need to do. I agree it is a bit scary letting it go to a stranger, but unless you can afford a proper editor, it is very helpful and free. As for finding a good Beta Reader? You post your need on the discussions for the genre you write and hope for the best. Eventually you will connect with someone who you can work well with.
No matter what you do, something will always be missed, but as long as it is minor, hopefully only a few people will notice.

[Mike]

Reading the text backwards is also good for catching any format errors and overused words (the dreaded 'that' and 'but').

[Valerie]

I've started using editing software which helps take the emotion out of the edits (to me). And after all, one still does have the choice of whether to accept the recommendations or not. I use ProWritingAid, but there are many. Here's a blog post on the same subject: http://bit.ly/OnEditing.
I also found many useful tips in "Self-editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King.
And finally, as others have suggested, another set of eyes is crucial, particularly a seasoned editor's.
Best of luck to you!

[Brenda]

If you are making up words or names -- Galadriel, mithril, that kind of thing -- run 'em all through Google. You want to know, if that romantic Elvish name you gave your hero is used for an X-rated activity involving horses in Serbo-Croatian street slang.

[Martin]

My solution was simple. I married a professional editor...

[[deleted user]]

Brenda wrote: "If you are making up words or names -- Galadriel, mithril, that kind of thing -- run 'em all through Google. You want to know, if that romantic Elvish name you gave your hero is used for an X-rated..."

Ha ha, good point Brenda, I've been google checking my invented words and places, but not my names. As of yet they've been pretty normal, but I will remember that in the future.
Google checking can be rather disappointing as I have found many things/names I thought I had invented were already somewhere (world or warcraft, etc.).

[Kim at 24/7 in France]

Reading it outloud works for me, albeit after it was edited, read and re-read, and published!! It's the old can't see the forest for the trees analogy that comes into play, it seems...