Revised 2019 Edition
In Polish Your Fiction: A Quick & Easy Self-Editing Guide, writer,
editor, and publisher, Jessica Bell, offers her tried and tested advice
on the quickest and easiest ways to polish different areas of writing
style, consistency of prose, grammar, punctuation, typography, and
layout. Each section is armed with a numbered checklist for moments when
writers need that "at-a-glance" reminder and nifty Microsoft Word tricks
that will save time. At the end of the book there are also magnificent
accounts of editorial mistakes other authors have made during their
careers, to show that no matter how many times a book is edited,
something always slips through, and to therefore not be so hard on
oneself.
In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott says a writer needs to focus on short
assignments to avoid feeling overwhelmed. She refers to the one-inch
picture frame on her desk and how it reminds her to focus on bite-sized
pieces of the whole story. If you focus on one small thing at a time,
the story will eventually come together to create a whole. The same
applies to editing a manuscript. If writers focus on one aspect of the
editorial process at a time, the task will seem less daunting, and piece
by piece, it will come together to form a piece of very polished work.
Not only is Polish Your Fiction: A Quick & Easy Self-Editing Guide an
excellent addition to any self-publishing course, but it's also a great
primary learning tool for aspiring authorpreneurs, and a great booster
for more experienced authorpreneurs to get their manuscripts in
excellent shape before sending their work to a professional editor.
