I’m about halfway through the edits of my recently finished WIP. I can only do a couple of chapters at a time before I lose my focus. Edits are as much about fixing the little typos and commas as they are about doing re-writes and if I try to work too long I just don’t *see* the mistakes anymore. Also, I start to lose my voice.
The best way I’ve found to edit my work is to read it back to myself out loud. I can catch all sorts of things when I hear it that my eye might just gloss over.
So, I edited three chapters of my book this morning before moving along to the domestic stuff. I turned up my music – loud – and watered the many plants on my balcony. I peeled and cut up some potatoes to make potato salad for dinner. Then I whipped up some banana bread.
Somehow I’ve become known for my banana bread. I started making it because I couldn’t keep up with my bananas – they would get overripe before I could eat them all. Now I just make it because we all like it so much. Thought I’d share the recipe with you in case you wanted to try it yourself.
Banana bread 1 3/4 cups flour **2 tsp. baking powder1/4 tsp. soda1/2 tsp. salt1/2 cup sugar1/2 chopped nuts (optional)2 eggs1 cup mashed banana (2-3)1/2 cup oil Sift dry ingredients together (add nuts if used). Add unbeaten eggs, mashed bananas and oil. Pour intoprepared pan and bake at 350F/180C for one hour. Cool before slicing. NOTES:I use 1 cup of all-purpose white flour, and the rest whole wheat with a touch of wheat germ.I reduce the oil a bit, the more banana you use, the less oil required.If you use a muffin tin, reduce baking time to 20-25 minutes.These freeze extremely well!
Enjoy!
Hi, Jenyfer–Another good way to edit for the little stuff like misspellings and typos is to read your book backwards. It forces you to look at the words instead of reading.
Editing is where the work comes in, isn’t it?
by Elissa Abbott April 24th, 2007 at 11:54 pm