(Newswire.net — April 27, 2021) — If you are going into the editing field and plan to be a professional editor or write a book and edit it yourself, you may not know what to look for. To get a good idea of what you need to do, here is a good option on how to write a book, and you might want to check out AutoCrit, a fantastic piece of editing software.
There are six main types of editing to consider, and each of these editing phases or types looks at something different. We will discuss these six types of editing, as well as what you need to look for. We’ve got some great tips and useful dos and don’ts of book editing.
The Six Types of Editing
As mentioned above, there are six main types of editing, and each concerns a different aspect. It starts with macro editing, about the ‘big picture,’ and then slowly progresses to micro editing, which is all about the finer details.
Developmental Editing
The first stage of the editing process is developmental editing, which is about the ‘big picture.’ You will look for how well your story or arguments line up from start to end and how well organized the book is as a whole. Does it have a beginning, middle, and end?
Evaluation Editing
This is still ‘big picture’ editing, just slightly less so. Here you will look at how well the book flows, how well structured it is, and how well written it is. This is more about looking at the overall quality of the writing more than anything else.
Content Editing
Now we are moving from ‘big picture editing’ to micro editing, to some extent. With content editing, you look at the words on the pages. You evaluate the tone of voice in relation to your target audience and how well each paragraph flows from one to the next. It’s still about structure, but on a smaller scale.
Line Editing
This is where you will start to look at the small picture, and here you will look at individual sentences to see how well structured they are and how well they flow into each other. More than anything else, pay attention to the desired impact of each sentence.
Copy Editing
Copy editing is about finding spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes.
Proofreading
This final part of the editing process involves reading through the complete copy one last time to look for any remaining errors.
Essential Things to Look for When Editing a Book
Let’s go through some crucial tips for editing your book, what you need to pay attention to for the best results.
- Try to not spend too long setting a scene. Don’t take three pages to set the stage in a chapter. Try to get to the point within the first page of the chapter.
- Don’t use needlessly long and complicated words. While demonstrating that you have a great vocabulary is acceptable in some cases, it’s unnecessary and annoying when it comes to novels.
- Never use words that add no meaning or value to the writing. Just like with SEO writing, there is no need to overstuff sentences.
- One mistake that beginners often make is to insert redundancies into their writing. Try to avoid being redundant, because, after a few pages, it starts to make for some really tedious reading.
- When editing a book, look for needless adjectives. Good writing is about verbs and nouns, not adjectives.
- If the writing is meant to be figurative, avoid having the word ‘literally‘ throughout.
- Something else to look out for is excessive stage direction. Readers don’t need to know what every single character is doing with every body part at all times.
- Another mistake that beginners make is to change the point of view −shift the perspective of which character is talking or having an experience. If a chapter starts with one character’s POV, try to stick with it.
- If at all possible, avoid cliches.
- If a character is mad, show that they are angry. Don’t merely say that they are mad. Writing becomes more meaningful through action. Simply put, actions speak louder than words.
- Of course, you always want to look for any spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes.
- Always make sure that one sentence flows into the next, that one paragraph flows into the next, and so on. You want a consistent storyline, not a piece of writing that jumps all over the place.
Conclusion
There you have the six main stages of editing, what to look for in each stage, and additional writing and editing tips. This should make both your writing and editing processes much more straightforward.