Revising and Rewriting

Give your writing a rest before you go back to review it. How long a rest? That depends on what you've written. If it's a paragraph, wait a few minutes. If it's a novel, wait at least several weeks.

It also depends, of course, on whether you face a deadline.

Check your manuscript with a fresh eye. Ideally, leave it alone for a while and then revise it again.

Look at the document macroscopically and check to see if the organization makes sense and the message is clear. Check sentence by sentence and word by word, being picky about grammar, spelling, and word choice. Check every pronoun and ask yourself if it can be misunderstood.

If you have a lot of trouble with spelling and grammar, consider going through the document backwards. This will help you focus on each word and sentence.

If possible, get someone you trust to look over what you've written. Often something that seems perfectly clear to you will be ambiguous or confusing to another reader.

The most important part of revising and rewriting is knowing when to stop. Some writers will literally invest months trying to get the first page perfect, and never move on to the second page. There is a fine line between high standards and thundering idiocy. Be careful not to cross it.

Advice versus Advise

"Advice," rhyming with "spice," is a noun. You give advice and receive advice.

"Advise," rhyming with "wise," is a verb. You advise someone by giving them advice.

Don't be confused by the ‘s’ in "advise." It is pronounced ‘z.’

Show Don't Tell

This one is for the fiction writers out there. This is one of the most-repeated rules in fiction writing, but it's not an easy rule to understand and follow.

Show, don't tell. Telling is easy and simple. Showing is much harder. Showing takes more work and more words. Showing also works much, much better.

I grew up reading the Hardy Boys, the classic stuff published in the 60s. In pretty much every novel, Frank and Joe would get the same sentence of description. Frank was the serious and thoughtful one, while Joe was more impulsive. How much better it would have been to craft a scene that would demonstrate these traits and give us a chance to get to know the characters on our own.

Imagine if the Sherlock Holmes stories began by telling us that Holmes is brilliant, moody, and eccentric, while Watson is an earnest and not as bright. Anyone who has read a few of the stories knows exactly what Holmes and Watson are like. We don't have to take the author's word for it. We've seen the two men in action.

There are, of course, pitfalls to the rule of showing and not telling. We can indicate an emotion in someone by describing their body language. Someone might stiffen, sneer, or clench their fists. However, sometimes it is better to be succinct. Sometimes it is better just to say that a character is annoyed, rather than running through a list of twitches and clenches.

phase/faze

Phase - a noun; a part of something measured in time. He is going through a phase. Do you know the phases of the moon?

Faze - a verb; refers to being disturbed or upset. When the car broke down it didn't faze me.

Averse/Adverse

People are averse, when they have an aversion to something. I am averse to eating Brussels sprouts.

Conditions are adverse. There is a blizzard. I don't want to hike under such adverse conditions.

complement, compliment

Compliment - Something nice you say about someone. Pay someone a compliment.

Complement - Something that makes something complete. The fort has the full complement of troops. That tie is a complement to that suit.

Weeding Out Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Usually (but not always) it is better to eliminate the adverb. Instead, choose a better word to replace the word being modified.

"He ate his food quickly" could be "he bolted his food" or "he wolfed down his food." "She said loudly" could be "she screamed," "she shouted," or "she bellowed." The version without the adverb is actually more descriptive, as well as stronger.

Adverbs that modify adjectives are equally suspicious. "Very small" could be "tiny." "Fairly fat" might be "chubby." An adverb that is modified by another adverb can probably be replaced. "He fights extremely well" is not as elegant as "he fights superbly."

Not every adverb needs to be removed. Consider the above example, "he fights superbly." There isn't a good verb that means "fight superbly." Sometimes the adverb should be left alone.