19. Tackling Your Self Edit: What can you do yourself vs. needing an editor?

 In this episode of Show Don’t Tell Writing, Suzy walks listeners through the process of self-editing, offering practical strategies for writers to refine their manuscripts before seeking professional help. Suzy emphasizes the importance of editing as a way to ensure that the story you envision reaches your readers as clearly as possible.

➡️Have Suzy Vadori's Book Ready Self-Edit Checklist: 8 Simple Tests to Run on your Book Before Ever Sending it to an Editor, Agent, Publisher, or Reader sent to you!

Main Topics Include:

1. The Purpose of Editing
2. Different Types of Editing
3. Using Tools for Self-Editing
4. Seeking Feedback Before Hiring an Editor

Tools Mentioned:
1. Autocrit
2. Grammarly
3. ProwritingAid

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Intro and Outro Music is Daisy by Zight and used under a CC by 4.0 DEED Attribution 4.0 International license. For more music by Zight visit https://www.youtube.com/zight

Transcript

0:49

Welcome to Show Don't Tell Writing with me, Suzy Vadori, where I teach you the tried and true secrets to writing fiction, nonfiction, that are going to wow your readers broken down step by step. We're going to explore writing techniques. I'm going to show you a glimpse behind the scenes of successful writers careers that you wouldn't have access to otherwise. And I'm also going to coach writers live on their pages so that you can learn and transform your own storytelling. Whether you're just starting out, you're drafting your first book, you're editing, or you're currently rewriting that book, or maybe even your tenth book, this show's gonna help you unlock the writing skills that you didn't even know you needed. But, you definitely do. I'm so excited. I am so looking forward to helping you get your amazing ideas from your mind onto your pages in an exciting way for both you and your readers, so that you can achieve your wildest writing dreams. And you're going to also have some fun doing it. Let's dive in. This week, I'm excited to talk about Yes, that's right. I'm excited because I love it. I'm obsessed almost as much as I am about applying show don't tell techniques in writing. So that's a lot. If you're listening to this episode and thinking, but Susie, editing is the worst. I never know if my Making my book better or worse? Well, I got you because in this episode, I'm going to demystify the editing process. And I'm going to convince you why you need to spend time editing and the answer is going to surprise you. But we're also going to explore why writers give up when they're working on their second draft. And I see this all the time. Don't give up. You need this episode. And I'll also show you the things that you as a writer can learn to fix by yourself and the role of getting an outsider to look at your pages and what that might look like. By the end of this episode, I really hope you're going to be jazzed up and ready to tackle making your book the best it can be. Make sure you grab my free self edit checklist, which is in the show notes, the link to get it to give you some structure around this super fun process. Yes, editing can be super fun. You can download that freebie when you're done listening in the show notes. And I'll remind you again at the end of this episode. Okay, so editing, revisions, what are we talking about today? To keep things simple and call it all editing, because that's what most of my writers say, a revision work sounds so daunting, but really, it's all pretty simple. There is only one basic reason to edit your writing. You want to give readers the best, fullest picture of your idea that's in your story Your essay, your book, whatever it is that you're writing. This works for all types of writing. Because your first draft is actually just telling yourself the story for the very first time. Now, this is true if you're writing fiction, even if you have a detailed outline. You're still going to be filling in some blanks as you go, making decisions, adding more detail to its scene. But this is also true that you're telling yourself the story for the very first time, even if you're writing nonfiction, like your own memoir and your own life, if you're writing about your own life. It happens to be true, and you did live this story once before, but when you write it down, you're colouring it with your experience, if you're doing it right, so that your reader can experience what it's like to be in your shoes. And every single memoir writer I've ever worked with has learned something really profound about themselves and their own story by writing it down. So yes, that first draft, dig deep, whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, but get it on the page. Okay. There's a thousand ways to get your first draft done. And I am supportive of whatever writing process works for the writer. Because many writers challenge themselves to write forward and, you know, don't edit along the way, get it done, and some of them, you know, write daily, get small doses, write, write, write, just keep going, keep going, keep going. That works for a lot of people. I'm actually a binge writer myself, and I work on my writing several days at a time when I can. And then I work on editing other people's projects. I hold a lot of books in my head, so it's a real luxury for me to pull it out and to be able to work on my own writing, so I tend to do it in blocks. But no matter if you've been super disciplined while writing your book and it was sort of mechanical and went the way you wanted, or your story hit you like a flash, like a lightning bolt and kind of came out that way. It doesn't matter how it happened, if you're listening to this, it's because you're at the point where you're ready to edit. And it's quite possible that whatever you wrote down felt super brilliant going on to your page, but when you read it back, you just know in your gut that it doesn't sound like the books you read from a major publisher. Right? Your story is alive in your head, but you know what's on the page isn't there yet, and you're not sure what to do. We're going to talk about that today because you might be thinking at this point in time Well, maybe a publisher will see its potential and help me or maybe I could just publish this version independently Like just hit self publish I'll just put it out there and people are gonna look past the lack of finesse and they're gonna get it, right? Okay if you feel seen right now when I'm saying these statements and you've thought about this this episode is for you because I'm Not only going to call you out on giving up this easily, right? And that's what it is, giving up, if you're not going to bother doing the editing. I'm going to explain why. But I'm going to share with you how you can push past this moment. Because you're going to have to, if you want your writing to start a conversation with the world. Because if you reach deep down, and I'm willing to bet that you didn't just write this book for yourself. Even if lots of writers tell ourselves that we're writing just for ourselves, we might tell ourselves that I wrote it just for me. But deep down, you didn't write it just for you. You have this other dream. I'm going to talk about that in a second. I want you to know you're not alone. I hear this all the time. But the secret hope of almost every writer I've ever worked with is that someone out there is going to read your story. It's going to affect them in some way. And they're gonna love it, share it, and you, you know, the, the part of this dream is, oh, it's gonna be so good that I won't even have to lift a finger to promote it, because it's gonna be passed from whisper to whisper, and from library to library, it's gonna be in demand. And if that happens, when that happens, you're going to feel great because you're going to know that that idea that you had for the book, the one that kept you writing it forever, for as long as you've been writing it, is out there in the world and that you've started that conversation, right? So admit to yourself that you want that to happen. But when you do, when you, when you've actually admitted that, That you care about your readers experience. You're going to have to take this editing process seriously. Okay, because you can't swallow pathically beam your idea and your point of view into your readers brains. Right? We can't just think it and then somebody else will get it. There's this in between step. There's this in between step and I can guarantee that no matter how amazing your first or even your second draft is, there's room, there is room to make an even greater impact on your reader. There is room. There are things you can do. Okay? Notice I'm not saying you should write to market, or dumb it down, or I'm also not saying give the readers what they want to read. I'm not saying any of those things. Your idea, your idea that you were excited about is what has gotten you this far. It's what you want to say. And that's, what's important. You may be the only person in the world that can say this particular thing at this particular moment in time. So stay true to that. You don't have to change your idea for anyone, but making sure that your words are actually on your pages in a way that readers are going to get it and going to see that idea and see you and your point of view. That's your goal. That's the goal of editing. Not to, not to change your story. Sometimes you might have to change elements of it in order to demonstrate it. You know, instead of telling them, we want to show them so you can change some of the things that you show. But your goal is actually about your reader's experience. Because your writing is like the game of telephone. Now, You've probably played this as a kid where you line up or be in a circle and somebody comes up with a phrase like marshmallows are great to roast and then they whisper it to the kid next to them and that kid whispers it and everybody, you know, breaks out into laughter because it all of a sudden doesn't make any sense. And if you're anything like me, and you're a writer, my guess is you might have been the last person in the line that got to you intact. And it actually was that phrase and you made up something else just for that big laugh. Right? But usually it doesn't get to the end of the line. And so your writing is actually that game of telephone. Your idea has to get to the, all the way to the end of the telephone line, and the reader has to get it. It has to be the same. Because if it gets to the end of the telephone line, and it says hippopotamus rainbow, right? That is not what you were trying to say. So if you get a one star review, and they say that your book is trash, And that does happen because if you get it out there and it isn't your idea, that is not a comment on your idea. That is not a comment on anything except that you haven't communicated it. You haven't taken the time to make sure that you're writing. You haven't applied the skills. You haven't done the work to make sure that that idea that you love, that kept you in your seat, that kept you going for however long you've been writing this, got to your reader. It didn't get there. It got lost in the game of telephone. That's what editing is about. So how do you know how to get started? Like, how do you even get started? Your writing isn't done. What do I do? Okay. There are several parts to editing. The first thing that everyone thinks of and what's kind of drilled into us in school is grammar and spelling, right? So there is grammar and spelling, and that is one small piece of editing. And they say small, and when they explain what the others are. Because you want to make your writing as clean as possible, and grammar and spelling are still important, even in today's day and age where, you know, we misspell things so often that they become an alternate spelling in the dictionary, right? This is, this is still a thing that you need to address. Why? Not because someone is going to grade it or give you an F if you don't spell things correctly or if you misplace a comma. But remember, the whole goal of editing is to make your reader's experience with your writing, with your book, with your story, with your essay, with your memoir, whatever it is that you're writing, the best experience that it can be. And the closest and the fullest experience that fully represents your idea. So, make it easy on them, right? Make it easy for your reader to get that idea. You getting spelling and grammar and the basics right means they can read faster. They can read faster and they're not confused and they're not stumbling on errors that will completely distract them from the point of what you're trying to say. So, Right? This is table stakes. You've got to work on spelling and grammar. But even though it's the first thing you might think of when you are tackling editing, it's actually the last thing you want to do. Okay? It's the very last thing that you should work on. Why? Because especially if it's not your forte and you spend all this time fixing spelling and grammar, and then you realize that there's bigger problems and you have to actually change scenes. And the order of things, you're going to have to do it all over again. So, you know, leave it to last. Leave it to last. And if spelling and grammar isn't your strong suit, or English isn't your first language, that's totally fine. And it doesn't mean that you can't be a writer. Of course you can. You still have a point of view. You still have something to say, and it needs to be said. And in today's day and age, this is no biggie to be, you know, not amazing at spelling and grammar. They happen to be a superpower of mine, which is how I landed as an editor. But having that superpower doesn't make you special. It doesn't make me special. There are many other things that every single writer brings to the table. that only you can, okay? Spelling and grammar isn't one of them. It's mechanical. There are tools that you can use yourself to help you clean up your spelling and grammar if you need them. There's Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Autocrit, right? We'll include some links that you can check these programs out if you need them. These programs actually use a version of AI to help you with your spelling and grammar. Now, Just a quick note, these tools, like spelling and grammar tools, have been around for decades and they're great tools to help so many different voices that wouldn't otherwise get their work out there, right? We've got to get this right, spelling and grammar. But these tools still rely on your decision making skills as the writer, okay? This is not to be confused with the next level of generative AI, which is all over the news, where the writing is done for you. Okay, so I am not recommending that you go out and use AI. Definitely, definitely you can use tools that will point out spelling and grammar issues and make suggestions and then you make choices. You are still the god of that story. But there are other ones, other generative AIs out there now that can write a whole story for you with a prompt, or they can fix all the spelling and grammar in your whole novel, right? Or, or supposedly. I'll talk about that in a second. This space is evolving so quickly, but this new kind of AI can generate a lot of content quickly, but it will strip out your voice, okay? That's part of the problem with it is it's using so many different things to learn. I can't have your uniquely human voice. And what makes, you know, what makes you you, and what makes your story awesome. Which is likely to make the experience really poor for your readers if you just use these tools. There's also a problem. If you're feeding your work into an AI tool and having it fix things, it now has your original work. This AI tool can now use it to generate content for others. They can use what you fed into it to generate content for others if you're using these generative AI tools. And if you have AI generate or process your work, you gotta declare it. You're gonna have to declare that it includes AI generation, which has copyright implications. It may mean that you don't own your own copyright to your own book, so be careful. But AI is a topic for another episode. In terms of editing, Know that you're safe to use spelling and grammar checkers and be wary of generative AI in summary. One last note on spelling and grammar because I don't want to harp on this. It's boring. I love it, but it's boring at the same time. But there is no substitution for the human eye. A great proofreader will catch many, many more errors than a program will. End of story, right? They just can't catch all the different meanings that it might have or all the different uses that you might have. So beyond spelling and grammar is where editing gets tricky because it's hard to see where your own story isn't working. Why? Because your idea is so alive in your own mind that it plays like a movie when you think of it. And when you read your own work back, you just cue up that movie and watch away. So. It won't show you what a reader is going to experience when they read that same script, right? Or that same book. For you, it might appear in your mind in full color, but your reader might see it only in black and white. Or they might be trying to piece together the highlights reel because you haven't included all the connecting dots. That's really hard for you to notice, right? And that's where reader feedback is key to making sure that the reader experience is awesome. Remember, that's what we want to do. The reader experience is awesome. So we clean up the grammar and spelling. Beyond that, we want their experience to be the same as that movie playing in your mind, okay? There are several levels of reader feedback that you can enlist. You could start with alpha readers. Alpha readers are those trusted friends that you can send a really crummy draft to. They might be other writers, they might be your spouse, they might be a good friend who's really invested in your journey. They'll read everything. They're, they're not gonna give you a ton of feedback, but they might be like, good job. And pat you on the back and send you back to your desk to keep writing, right? Alpha readers are awesome. They're your friends and family who say everything is good. Everything is great. They are so proud of you and so stunned. Most of our friends and family, unless you're in a very unusual family, most of our friends and family are just in awe. Many, many people in the world want to write a book. Very, very few people do it. Very few people start it. Even fewer people finish it. We're going to make sure you're one of those people who actually gets it done. and realizes their dream. So those alpha readers are awesome. They don't have the skills in general. They don't usually have the skills to tell you anything other than good job. You can go up a level to beta readers, which is usually strangers, people who read in that genre. They might be other writers. Again, they are readers. You want them to react to your story. You do not need them to be looking at spelling and grammar and things like that. If you ask them to do that, you're gonna get a different experience. You're gonna get them worried about their own skills as an editor. You're gonna get them worried that they are not gonna get it back to you. They might ghost you. They might not finish. Just ask them to read it and react. Don't ask them to do more than that. Then there's editors. Editors can be all kinds of different levels. I look at the big picture. I'm a developmental editor. There are proofreaders. There are line and content editors. People have different skill sets. There are different levels of editors. Then there's agents and publishers. Yeah, you're going to get feedback then. And you're also going to get feedback from reviewers. When your book is published, that is the ultimate feedback is for viewers. This is a hierarchy. These are stairs. You go from alpha readers, beta readers, editors, agents, and publishers, if you go that route, right? And then reviewers. If you are a self publishing or independently publishing, you don't have that agent and publisher feedback loop, but you have the rest. You still have the alpha readers, beta readers, editors, and reviewers, but reviewers are the ultimate. It's what we all hope for is that five star review. But if you skip all the other steps and you publish your book right as it is, that first draft, what if the feedback is poor? Then it probably will be. Again, it's not a reflection of your idea. Your idea is great. You haven't put in that work. You're going to get that feedback, right? And it's too late. It's already out there. So quick note on feedback. What you actually want here. Okay, I mentioned that many of these levels, they don't have necessarily the professional experience to give you specific advice. So what you actually want here, other than the specific advice from professionals in this group. So if you're working with an agent or professional editor with skills, another professional writer with skills, agents or publishers, this might be different. But if anybody else What you really need to know is how they're reacting, right? Did they love a character? Was a part of your book boring? Many times, a reader's going to offer you suggestions to fix it. Move this section. Start it this way instead. Kill that character, right? They're going to have ideas. Because that's the exciting part about being a reader for somebody is You want to see your own ideas sometimes out there, right? Some people want that. All of these ideas are going to conflict. And you can listen to their suggestions if you want, but you don't have to. And that doesn't make you a bad writer. In fact, it makes you the god of your own story, which you are. You need to stay true to your idea. So you don't have to change your story the way that they suggest. You really don't. But I'm not giving you permission here to cover your ears and ignore your reader's reaction. So don't interpret it that way. Quite the opposite, in fact. Because their reaction to your story is exactly what you need. You may not fix it the way that they asked you to, but their reaction is bang on, because that's what you need. How is a reader going to react when they read this? They might give you a hundred different ways to fix a problem, but they may all have the same issue with your book. And that's really common. So pay attention. If you get a bunch of different feedback and it feels like it's conflicting. Go to the root. What are they saying doesn't work? Doesn't matter how they say to fix it, right? What are they saying doesn't work? Pay attention. Take it to heart. Your book is never going to start a conversation with the world if everyone who reads it stops halfway through because one of your scenes is so slow they put the book down. You gotta fix it. Readers are busy. And we want them to read our books in as much detail as we spent writing it and spending as much time, but they won't. You may have spent months, years, in some case, decades on this book that you're writing. Your readers are going to read it in a few sittings, a couple of days. So, make it easy on them. That is the work of editing. Spend the time to fix the areas that they flag that aren't working. That is super, super valuable information. This is about the time when writers panic or want to give up and start telling themselves, I don't care if everyone likes it. We just need a few readers to like it, don't I? Or, reworking those areas is going to double my timeline. Can't I just skip it? And this is when writers call me and they want me to say that they don't have to do the work. Of course, I'm not going to say that. And also, of course, you don't have to do anything in life that you don't want to do. Right? You certainly don't have to write this book, but if you feel called to write it, and you do because you're listening to this podcast, and if you want your book to make an impact, Your reader's reactions matter and the quicker that you stop fighting that gut feeling that you should hunker down and do the work, the quicker your book is going to be ready. Writers who don't break out of this cycle of telling themselves, Oh, do I really have to fix that? I don't know. Do I really have to fix that? If you can't break out of that cycle, the writers give up. Or that's when you end up spending a decade writing the same book, right? It's part of the process. But if you don't want this to be you, then you need to squash that feeling of overwhelm. Here's what I want to say is number one, nobody's first draft is ready for readers. Do not expect that. Even writers, professional writers who are like some of the most prolific writers I've in the world that I work with, they still have two or three drafts. On their 30th book, right? They are not publishing their first draft. Don't expect that. And number two, all the work has to get done. So get to it. Overwhelm can be your brain's response. Okay? Overwhelm. If you feel overwhelmed right now and you're like, Oh, I don't know where to start. Sometimes we call this writer's block. And there are many categories of writer's block, but this one's a biggie. So, how to get beyond it, take the next right step and knock it off. Your readers will thank you because overwhelm is all about not making a choice. It's an actual writer's block is kind of a category. Some people call it a myth. It does exist, but you got to find why that's happening. And one of the biggest ones is that you're overwhelmed. So overwhelm is actually a, a brain response. It's scientifically proven. If you do not make a decision, your brain cannot move forward and then it just shuts down and feels like overwhelmed. It's like you're going along a path and then there's a fork in the road and you could turn right or you could turn left and you say, which way to go? And you stand there. Guess what? You can't actually move right. You can't actually move left because you haven't made a choice as soon as you, and so your brain's just gonna wait. Might think of something else, might turn around and go back and not make the choice, right? So this is what's happening with you. If you're feeling that overwhelm when you think about editing, take the next right step. Make a choice, knock it off, your readers will. Thank you. Can you get a book ready without the involvement of an editor? Can you skip that step? I get it. Editing can be very pricey, especially if you hire somebody who is really qualified. There are people out there that will quote unquote edit for you that are less expensive, but what you're paying for is actually somebody's experience and somebody's training to be able to recommend things to you. You can send it out to a hundred beta readers and get all these suggestions and have no idea which one is correct. An experienced editor will be able to give you the pros and cons and let you make that decision and also show you exactly how to do it. They save you time. They save you time and they also can ensure that your book gets a better response at the end of that telephone line when it's published. They can ensure that you get a better response. response from your readers. That's what you want. So can you get it ready without the involvement of an editor? Well, yes, but a skilled editor is going to help you fill in those gaps in your writing education. They're going to show you how to make your reader's experience the best it can be by showing you exactly where to focus your attention to improve a reader's experience and give you specific details on how to get it done. But before you ever think about working with an editor. Take your writing as far as you can on your own, whatever skills you have, apply them. Don't rely on your editor to fix things that you already know how to do. A great editor's time is valuable, and you don't want to be paying them to spend their time on things that you could do yourself. You want them to be able to look at the big picture and not be correcting commas, right? So I've offered here in the show notes, you can grab my book ready self edit checklist, which is eight simple tasks that you can run on your book before you ever send it to an editor, agent, publisher, reader. It will definitely save you time and it will also save you money because you won't have to get all those things done. Okay. It's got some really specific techniques in there. So make sure you download that so that you have something. Once you're done listening to this podcast, You can go and get really excited and geek out about editing the way that I do, but do it with a plan. Do it step by step. We don't want to be just rewriting scenes and wondering if we've made them better or worse, right? That is a cycle that can take you forever. It can be really frustrating and daunting, and it can really make you doubt your own skills because You are just going in circles. It's a make a plan, follow the checklist, work with an editor. And if you've taken your book already as far as you can on your own and want me to apply my decade of experience to help you make your readers happy. Like, experience with your book off the charts. You can find out more information at SuzyVadori. com. You can fill out an intake form to find out how long my current wait list is. I usually book up months in advance and we can start a conversation about your book and your writing dreams. Thanks for tuning in to Show Don't Tell Writing with me, Suzy Vadori. I'll be continued to bring you the straight goods for that book you're writing or planning to write. Please consider subscribing to this podcast and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you're listening. Also visit suzyVadori. com forward slash newsletter. To hop on my weekly inspired writing newsletter list where you'll stay inspired and be the first to know about upcoming training, events, and writing courses that happen in my community. If you're feeling brave, check the show notes and send us a page of your writing that isn't quite where you want it to be yet for our show to tell page review episodes. Remember that book and your writing is going to open doors that you haven't even thought of yet and I can't wait to help you make it the absolute best. If you're feeling called to write that book, keep going, and I'm going to be right here cheering you on. See you again next week.