Before the Editor

I've plotted and schemed through my first romance novel with nothing but spell check to guide the way. Back then, I thought I was brilliant, not a mispelled word. It must be a fantastic story that everyone would want to read.

Then, I found the Editor feature in Word.

I cried!

I was an awful writer.

Thousands upon thousands of grammatical errors! Well, maybe not that bad, but I felt the spear pierce my soul. How long would it take me to clear up my blunders?

Am I moving toward or towards something?

Am I piercing his lips, or is he pursing his lips?

Did he sit down, sit, stand up, look up, or look at?

My head is spinning!

And what about the character from another country who has broken English? Or speaks old English?

Stop correcting their improper speech! It's not my fault they talk like that!

Gotcha! Yep! How 'bout 'dem kids? Whaha ya paaak the caaaa?

If I thought the editor feature was bad, then I found Grammarly. She follows me everywhere, and we have a love-hate relationship. Perhaps, I wasn't joking about the thousands of thousands of errors. She picked apart every comma splice I made.

She found other things too. When do I use "that"? Much less than I did. Her little red underlines haunted every paragraph until I put her lessons to good use.

I want to know what's wrong with writing, 'he stood next to her'. Why Grammarly, why do you insist that it is 'beside' her? Don't answer! I don't want to know.

And what about using 'really'? I am partial to the word! LOL!

Actually, I like to use it in conversation, but otherwise, I limit its use. It feels weird for a character to say, "I am!"

"I really am" feels right.

Oh, no! The grammar police are going to come after me!

I am jesting about accepting suggestions from editing tools, but my writing has improved with each successive book. That said, beware. There is a chance to overedit and make your prose too stiff. Have a little fun. Break a few rules, but not the key ones that would take away the flow of your book.

Next stop! AutoCrit!

This bad boy loves to pick on everything from your sentence length to how many cliches you use in your manuscript.

He's infuriating.

If I hadn't scrubbed the story with Grammarly, I might have had to sit and cry! Why didn't anyone tell me that the preference for dialogue tags is something like 65% said/asked and 35% all other tags? But, here's the kicker. If you don't need a tag, don't use one!!!!!

Once again, what's wrong with saying someone yelled, screamed, snorted, hollered, bellowed, suggested, barked, shouted, acknowledged, called, blurted, mentioned, noted, questioned, uttered, voiced, quipped, drawled, remarked, responded, urged, agreed, added, or declared?

I mean, come on! Said and asked are so dull, right? Well, actually, using other dialogue tags can be distracting.

For my first book, I changed or deleted hundreds of dialogue tags to improve the flow.

What about those nasty '-ly' words? Oh, what about them? In addition to using too many dialogue tags, I was in love with the adverbs. They are so fun, but very wrong.

He finally said. She softly said. He loudly yelled. He boldly questioned.

Let me play with a cliche or two. Of course, I am being tongue-in-cheek.

Beware, use these sparingly or your prose will be wanting for a good editor.

Before I leave, I'll pick on some filler words. These dreadful words fill up your chapters, aren't required to carry your story along, and will cost you money when you pay to edit your story. Delete! Delete! Delete, unless you need them.

That. Then. Just. Very. Even. Really. Seem.

I hope that you enjoyed my editing journey!