More Tips for Editing Copy

1. For easy editing: cut out unnecessary words wherever possible. This is important when you’ve got a strict word count to stick to, but in all writing it’s good to make it as tight as possible. For instance, in the previous sentence I could remove the words “to stick to” – it would still make sense but would save a couple of words and make it flow better.

2. One of my literary heroes, Graham Greene, said of an often misused type of word: “Beastly adverb – far more damaging to a writer than an adjective”, which can be true of non-fiction just as much as fiction. Adverbs are words that explain or modify a verb or adjective. They can help to make a clear statement: “painfully thin” or “sang terribly” but often an adverb makes the text clunky: “He whispered” is much better than “he said quietly”. Editing these out where possible sharpens your writing.

3. Other examples of “beastly adverbs” are words such as really, very, actually, basically. These don’t add anything to your writing so can also be edited out. Also beware of phrases such as “quite impossible”. Impossible is an absolute and nothing else is harder, so using “quite” is a waste of time.

4. Whenever you quote a third party, you need to reference them properly. It’s slightly easier for blogs, as you can credit them at the end of the text, but you may still need permission if you’re using a large amount of source material. And always be careful when you use an image, particularly if you found it via an internet search. You can incur a huge fine if you use an image without asking first.

5. There can be a risk of libel whenever you write about a real person, living or dead. Including a real person in a piece of fiction will require a disclaimer that the words they use or the situations they get into is solely the author’s imagination. However, even in non-fiction, you should make sure you credit the right person for an idea or invention, and be careful if you’re repeating something that was said about them elsewhere.

Read the first blog in this series here, and click here for the final post.