41: Seven Easy Ways to Improve Your Manuscript

Before you send your manuscript to an agent, editor

or your beta readers use these steps to immediately improve

your manuscript. We're gonna go over seven easy ways to improve

your manuscript as part one of a two part series. In this episode

of writing pursuits. Welcome to the writing pursuits podcast

where authors like you discuss writing craft, author, life and

book marketing strategies. I'm your host Kathrese. McKee. I own

writing pursuits and write and produce the weekly newsletter

writing pursuits tips for authors. In addition, I am a

speculative fiction author. Writing pursuits is for authors

who drink too much coffee, endure judgemental looks from

their furry writing companions and struggle for words. If you

are a writer seeking encouragement, information and

inspiration, this podcast is for you. Let's get to it. Hey,

writing pursuits, authors. Welcome back to the podcast. For

those of you who are new, I want to extend a special welcome. My

name is Kathrese. McKee, and I'm glad you're here. Please leave a

comment a star rating and follow the show to help others find

writing pursuits. A reader asked me a question about word marker

edits, or marker edits was the name of my author services

business for many years. And I decided when I started this

podcast, writing pursuits that I would just change everything to

the same name, writing pursuits, podcasts in the writing

pursuits, website and word writing pursuits author

services. Anyway, it's all one thing. If you find things in it

within the site, that are labeled word marker edits,

they're just remnants of things that were before that haven't

been updated yet. So it's one in the same. It's the same person.

I appreciate the question from the reader. And I just wanted to

make that clear to anybody that had that same question. All

right, today ways to improve your manuscript. Number one,

check your spelling. This seems obvious to use your program

spell checker before you send your document out. It sounds so

obvious, but a large percentage of the manuscripts I receive

from authors have not been through this basic step. Every

major word processing program has a way to check spelling,

including Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Scrivener Open Office and

word WordPerfect. By Carell. If you're using notepad that's on

you. So use the spell checker before you send it out. It'll

save you some embarrassment down the line. All right, number two,

search for weasel words. weasel words are those words we use in

regular conversation that don't help our pros. They don't add

meaning they don't clarify anything. We're just used to

using them. So at a minimum search for really, and very, if

these words are used outside of dialogue between characters,

because that's the way we talk. If they're used outside of

dialogue, then try to find a better way. Also, search for

turn turned and turning this may be just me, it's my pet peeve.

Many authors overuse these verbs, especially in beats,

unless the direction your character is facing is important

to your plot. Then try a more meaningful action to relate

because turned turned and turning are way overused. I can

say the same for look looked in looking. And if we are naming

names, walk, walked in walking or pedestrian at best. I'm sorry

for the pun. These are valid words all of them are valid

words, but we tend to wear them out. Number three, search for

doubles. And what I mean by that is words that you have. you've

typed in twice in a row, or punctuation marks you have typed

in twice in a row. Things like the the and and

period period, question mark, question mark in that list. If

you're using question mark, question mark and two

exclamation points in a row, outside of like a text message

in your book, then I think you need to go back and rethink your

life. Let's have some standards of grammar. These are the

easiest levels to find and it is worth the time invested to

remove them yourself. Remove hidden tab characters. If you

use your tab key to indent a paragraph. You insert a hidden

character in your manuscript just as you do when you use the

Enter key to see these hidden characters in Microsoft Word.

Click the paragraph icon on the home menu tab. Many people have

a certain age learn to type on an electric typewriter. We I

mean, they learn to use the tab key to indent paragraphs and hit

the spacebar twice at the end of each sentence. It is difficult

for us I mean them to unlearn these habits. So, tab characters

are evil, they will cause unwelcome surprises down the

line. Use paragraph formatting in your word processing program

to create indentation instead of using the tab key. If you want

to achieve expert level in Microsoft Word, learn how to use

Styles. To avoid inserting tab characters by accident. Turn on

the option to set left and first indent with tabs and back

spaces. To do that, in Microsoft Word, go to File Options,

Proofing choose AutoCorrect Options and check the box under

automatically as you type. This is illustrated in the

accompanying blog post find the link to the blog post in the

show notes. Writing pursuits is run by Kathrese. McKee, who has

writing to a new level of excellence. Guthrie's is a three

story methods certified editor who specializes in story

diagnostics, coaching, and line editing to help you prepare your

story for the journey ahead. For more information, go to writing

pursuits.com. The link is in the show notes. And now back to the

podcast. Number five. Read your manuscript aloud. Don't skip

this step. Read your manuscript aloud. If your throat gets sore,

then use the software to read the manuscript to you while you

follow along. problems you can eliminate by reading your

manuscript aloud are missing words, repeated words and

phrases, unexpected hair and eye color changes out of character

speech patterns. Suddenly, Bruce doesn't sound like Bruce

anymore. He sounds like Harry, you'll find those things. When

you read aloud, character name changes and errors. Unnecessary

speech tags, like said said said said it'll start to show up and

you'll hear it and you'll be able to get rid of the ones that

are not necessary, awkward phrases and descriptions, time

shifts in your novel and physical impossibilities. When

you read your manuscript or aloud, I can't stress this

enough, you will hear the mistakes you no longer can see.

So read your manuscript aloud number six, insert page numbers.

This tip sounds silly, but page numbers get left out all of the

time. Give your editor agent or beta readers a way to refer to

problems. To comment on your manuscript to reference places

in your manuscript. Give them the page numbers they need, or

hey, give them a way to keep the printed pages in order. So

that's a common courtesy use page numbers. Number seven,

insert a page break before every chapter, can I get an amen on

this, do not use the Enter key multiple times. Don't just sit

there inter inter inter inter to force your chapter to start on

the next page. Instead, find and use the Page break option and

use it at the end of each chapter to force a new page. And

then on the next double spaced page, hit enter six or seven

times and type your chapter name. Hit enter and start your

first paragraph of the new chapter. This assumes you're

using Word or Google Docs. I've illustrated this in the blog

post that's in the show notes. If you want to get fancy, use

Styles to create a separate style for first paragraphs to

omit the indentation for the first paragraph of every chapter

and scene. That's optional, but you're a step closer to having

your document formatted for publication. Scrivener chapter

changes are really easy. All you need to do is use the wonderful

new text button. That's the plus sign. Name the new chapter and

start typing. A bonus Scrivener tip in Scrivener one of my

favorite self editing tools is under Project you go to

Statistics and choose Word Frequency. This feature is a

hidden gem, it can reveal potentially embarrassing

repetition. For example, I noticed in one of my books that

I used clenched too frequently. I mean, there are only so many

times a character needs to clench her hands or feel her

stomach clench. She was anxious a lot, evidently, and I couldn't

figure out no other way to do it. I was just going on

automatic pilot and I use clenched all the time. And so

like you know, I didn't need 15 instances of that in the book.

It became a little bit comic anyway. So take a few hours

before you send your manuscript out to tidy things up. Don't

obsess over it. But if you hit these tie points, you will be

more confident your work is as ready as you can make it. What

are your favorite last minute checks before you send your

manuscript out? Share your tips in the comment at work writing

pursuits.com forward slash podcast forward slash 41. Also

in the blog post, there are several resources you can use a

weasel word list a document with instructions about how to

prepare your manuscript for an editor or agent in Microsoft

Word and other resources. So I hope you'll check out the blog

post that is in the show notes. That's all I have for you today.

Until next time, keep writing. Thank you for joining us today.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and

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Tips for authors that link and all the links mentioned in

today's episode are in the show notes at writing pursuits.com.

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