Blogging A2Z Challenge, E is for...

 

Filler Words:

This means getting rid of anything that you may have used to pad out your novel, consisting of unnecessary words or information such as:

 That, Just, Only, Really, Slightly, Almost, Seemed, Perhaps, Maybe, Simply, Somehow, Absolutely, Basically, Actually, Now, Sort of, Kind of, a Little, Very.

Mark the sections where these occur, and then add some substance, facts or clearer descriptions instead.

Focus on one thing at a time:

Like this, your first pass could be to look for filler words and remove them, second pass could be to focus on your dialogue and make sure it’s tight, the third pass could check through your character arcs and make sure that they work. The idea behind this is so that you don’t get overwhelmed with it all.

Flip the order of your read through:

Another trick that has been suggested so that you don’t get over whelmed is that you flip the way you are doing your edits, instead of starting at the very beginning of the first vomit draft, you could, begin at the end, and read back towards the beginning, taking notes (naturally) as you go.

Fictional Worlds:

Ensure that you have built your fictional world well, but also make sure that you have given the descriptions that you need to give, sometimes we writers see the things we build in our heads, the worlds we have imagined, but forget to detail these on paper for our readers to envision.

Flash Backs:

These should lead to story complications, to move the story on, if the flashback doesn’t change things around it, then don’t use it.

Foreshadowing:

Make sure that you have foreshadowed what needs foreshadowing, during this read though, you may find areas that are missing this, ensure you make a note in the place you have arrived to, but also back where it needs to be, so that you can add it into your Novel’s 2^nd draft.