When "Tidying Up" aired early in January 2019 on Netflix, hordes of fans clamored for more of Marie Kondo's animism when dealing with all their "stuff." Kondo peddles the concept of perfect control over your things instead of letting your things control you. Writers, we can take a page out of Kondo's book.
Publication-quality text is what agents, editors, and readers are looking for — and they can tell whether you have it in the first paragraph, or even the first sentence.
A self-edit should have you cutting what doesn't add to your written work. Strive for simple, effective construction of phrases to achieve a better final product.
You may think your manuscript is ready for publication, but are there holes in your story? A beta reader can help determine if there's still work to do.
Use an editing pass to produce a map of your reader's suspension of disbelief. Once you've created a universe in which your reader is immersed, you can focus on polishing your manuscript for publication.
This twist on editing can turn those red marks on the page into something a writer craves. Red pen praising only highlights the best of a writer's work.
Editing software can improve your creative writing, and since you're alerted to corrections and suggestions, you can also expect to learn a lot and grow as a writer.
© 2019 BookBaby