My next book is currently with my agent after sending back my second lots of edits...from her! She is a fantastic agent and works with her authors to make them and their manuscripts the best they can be BEFORE submission to publishers. Agents do not have to do this and I really, really appreciate her patience and hard work.
Her list of what she wants from us has genuinely made me a better writer and as I didn't know what to blog about this weekend, I thought I'd share some of her editing tips with you. Let's pay it forward....
1) Eliminate words such as "saw" "felt" "heard" "looked" - they take the reader out of the character point of view. You are telling rather than showing.
2) Redundant words - like "staring up at the ceiling" Up is redundant
3) Eliminate "And" and "But" at the start of sentence, they are not needed.
4) Eliminate "That" as much as possible, very often a redundant word.
Just these four simple tips will make such a difference to your work and the increase the chances of that all important Yes! from an editor saying.
Happy writing!
Rachel x
Thanks for sharing those, Rachel - I'm going through the very same kind of edits on my tween novel, but from the editor. Exactly the same kind of words are being ruthlessly eliminated from my novel and it's all the stronger for it! I think US writing is much less formal than our UK style.
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