Training Your Brain to Self Edit

The brain is a funny thing. It’s brilliant when its creating, conjuring up amazing ideas and stories out of nothing. But sometimes the brain can be too brilliant.

When we write, our brains know what we’re trying to put down on paper faster than our fingers can keep up. This game of catch-up often leads to mistakes, typos, words missing letters, sentences missing words. Of course, spell check will help with these. But what about that pesky problem in the English language of words that sound the same but are spelled differently? Our brain is our best tool to catch those, but here’s where the too brilliant part comes in: Our brain corrects those mistakes without making us aware of it.

It’s like those games where you can read a sentence even if words are backward. The brain is looking for meaning, not grammar, and as long as it can get the meaning, it doesn’t worry about anything else. And if you wrote those words, with their mistakes, the brain already knows the meaning.

So, how to find and fix the problems? You need to trick your brain into seeing your words as if for the first time. There are lots of methods:

• Print out the pages and read on paper. Seeing the words in a different medium can jog your brain to concentrate more on the details.

• Change the font or color of the words on the screen. This can push your brain to think that what you’re reading is new.

• Read out loud. This is my personal favorite. By forcing your mouth to actually say every word on the page, you’re forcing your brain to read every word.

Next time you’re editing your own work, try these tricks to find and fix more errors.

Yellow Bird Editor Samantha Clark also blogs at SamanthaClark.wordpress.com.

Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Strunk and White’s Elements of Style

If you’ve taken any sort of writing class or ever gotten any professional writing advice, there’s a good chance you’ve been referred to Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Here’s a 2009 review of the classic that takes a decidedly different view:

“50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice.”

This article is a thorough vivisection of The Elements of Style. I just don’t know what to think anymore. One of the sacred icons of my little world has been desecrated!

Read this article if you’re a grammar geek. The author, linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum, is not afraid of getting too esoteric with his arguments. But you’ll also enjoy it if you’re not a grammar geek. Pullum mostly manages to subdue his grammar wonk urges. Generally, he just bashes the world’s most beloved pocket style manual. He cites example after example of Strunk and White breaking their own rules on the very same pages where they’ve stated them.

It’s both horrifying and immensely entertaining to follow along as he systematically shreds it. Don’t be ashamed to find this interesting. Embrace your inner writer geek and read 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice by Geoffrey K. Pullum

Commas and Apostrophes and Periods – Oh My!

Creating characters, setting them off on great adventures and sending in villains to thwart them are the fun parts of writing. But as writers, our own villains are often those pesky commas, apostrophes, em dashes and more.

There are so many rules. And there are times when the rules are allowed to be broken. Grammar can make the most creative of us squirm and feel enclosed, trapped. But done well, proper grammar and spelling can set your story free.

That’s where good copy editing comes in.

A comma in the right place can make a big difference in meaning. For example, notice the difference between “Let’s eat Uncle Mark” and “Let’s eat, Uncle Mark.” Uncle Mark will be very grateful for that comma.

But using correct grammar doesn’t have to be clinical. It can be as much an art choice as a character’s decision. Used well, commas, periods and em dashes can change the pace and tone of a sentence, paragraph or scene, speeding it up for action or slowing it down to build anticipation.

Of course, proper grammar and spelling also helps the reader stay in the story. Every time a reader sees a spelling error or a missing period, it jerks the brain into remembering that these are words and this is a book — it’s not really the movie they’ve been experiencing in their mind. It pulls them back to the real world and away from the reality of the story, which is where you want your readers to stay.

Word and most other writing software have at least a spell check and maybe a grammar check too. These are useful tools, but their not fallible. A spell check won’t notice that the “their” in that last sentence should have been “they’re,” for example. And the grammar check won’t care whether Uncle Mark is dinner.

So, what to do? If grammar is your specialty, a good read-through paying close attention is a start. However, our brains are smart. They’re trained to fill in what’s missing. So you might have read “they’re not fallible” and not noticed the mistake until you read the next sentence. If you caught it, congratulations. But if you had written it, your brain would have remembered and most likely filled in what you meant to type instead of what you actually typed.

That’s is why it’s important to have others copy edit your work.

Having your manuscript edited is especially important for self-publishers. But it’s equally important for writers who are submitting to agents and editors. Sure they’ll forgive the occasional missing comma, dangling participle, or “that” instead of “which,” but too many errors, and you’ll have that reality check problem. When it’s your career on the line, and your manuscript is the last of 15 the agent or editor has read and it’s nearing midnight, you don’t want to give them any excuse to put it down.

Don’t let pesky grammar get in the way of your book deal. Call Yellow Bird Editors.

Want to be a good editor? Be a stupid reader.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve done all the things my fourth grade teacher told me not to do. I skim. I skip over boring parts. I speed up, rather than slow down, when I’m confused. And when I see a word I don’t understand, I most definitely don’t stop to look it up in the dictionary. In short, I’m a fourth-grade failure.

So how did I wind up here, editing novels and memoirs for a living? The truth is quite simple. Over the years, I’ve learned that my bad reading behaviors are actually some of the same attributes that make me a good editor.

Below are three rules of thumb for editing fiction—whether your own, or a friend’s. You might just be surprised.

1. Be impatient

If you read a manuscript too slowly, you can actually fool yourself into thinking it’s good. The real test is whether it will hold up in the face of a quick-read, which is how potential literary agents and editors (and their assistants and interns) will approach it, given the sheer volume of material they consider every day.

So when you read a manuscript for the first time, don’t stop to analyze every sentence. Don’t pause to parse each densely packed paragraph. Don’t pore over the imagery, waiting for hidden symbolism to manifest itself. Instead, read hungrily, like you’re devouring a slice of chocolate cake. The inedible pieces will quickly become apparent.

2. Be unforgiving

Inevitably, you will stumble upon something in the manuscript that doesn’t make sense. Let’s call this a “huh?” moment. In the face of a “huh?” moment, you might be tempted to re-read the confusing passage multiple times until you experience an “ah-ha!” moment. Once you have that “ah-ha!” moment, you might think, “OK, it makes sense after all. I was just being stupid.”

But, no! You weren’t. It was the manuscript that was confusing. And if you were confused, chances are someone else will be, too. In order to be a good editor, you must be unforgiving. You must not tolerate even a single ounce of confusion.

3. Be stupid

Authors are tricky people. I know because I am one. We sometimes try to sneak in clever metaphors, literary allusions, witty analogies, and other little nuggets that don’t quite fit with the story but are simply too brilliant not to use.

When you take off your writer’s hat and put on your editor’s hat, you can go ahead and forget about all that so-called brilliance. Instead, be as stupid as you can allow yourself to be. Do you still follow the metaphor? Still get the joke? Then it can stay.

Coaching Services for High School Students

Yellow Bird founder Sara Kocek has 7+ years experience working privately with high school students to develop and refine outstanding college admissions essays, including the all too-often overlooked short-essay questions (250 words or fewer). She does much more than help applicants improve individual essays; she guides students through shaping their entire collection of essays to hone the overall message they send the admissions office. Sara is available both for coaching (guiding the student through the writing process) and editing (improving existing drafts). Her clients have been admitted to top universities including Yale, Tufts, UPenn, Dartmouth, and NYU. Most coaching and editing sessions are conducted via email and phone. Please email Sara to inquire about rates. While you’re at it, check out Sara’s guest post on the Writing Barn blog, 5 Tips for Writing a Gutsy College Application Essay, for the story of the love letter that got her into Yale.

Yellow Bird has partnered with The Writing Barn to present a 3-part workshop for high school seniors. Taught by Yellow Bird founder Sara Kocek, the boot camp is designed to lead high school seniors through the process of writing a college admissions essay. We will focus on what college admissions officers are looking for, common pitfalls to avoid, how to write fresh, original essays based on the “same old, same old” questions in the common application, and how to let loose your authentic voice onto the page. Sessions will include time for discussion, revision, and editing. Students will then have the opportunity to work in small writing groups and one-on-one with the instructor to help bring their essays to completion. Click here for information on dates & pricing.