How Copyediting Helps Your Writing Quality
You do copyediting after you’ve finished a piece. No, there’s no problem if you add the occasional word or take one out if you are rereading the piece. But the picky, close scrutiny of the words is best left to after the piece is complete. Otherwise, it will run the risk of derailing your creative process as discussed in another post.
But copyediting can help your writing be tighter, more focused and even more interesting. In this post (which is a little longer than usual), I want to show how copyediting can help the quality of your writing.
Original piece
This is the passage I originally wrote for a scene in my novel Scam!
Now that they are around the dinner table, Eleanor is tempted to let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Steve finally cuts the tension. “Well, quite the scene.”
“It’s just like him—” Patsy begins.
“That’s enough,” says Eleanor sharply. “We have a guest—we don’t air our dirty laundry in front of guests.”
“What, Kim?” Steve asks. “She’s not a guest. She’s practically family.”
Eleanor shakes her head. “Nevertheless. I want everyone to keep a civil tongue in their heads. Patsy, will you help me bring in the coffee?”
Eleanor and Patsy work in silence in the kitchen. But she remembers where everything is and in short order the cups and cream are on a tray.
“You take that in and I’ll bring the coffee in when it’s done,” Eleanor directs Patsy.
So not that awful, don’t you think? This is 133 words.
Finished piece
Now compare the previous piece with how it ended up.
Around the dinner table, Eleanor is tempted to let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Steve finally cuts the tension. “Well, quite the scene.”
“It’s just like him—” Patsy begins.
“That’s enough,” says Eleanor sharply. “We have a guest—we don’t air our dirty laundry.”
“What, Kim?” Steve asks. “She’s practically family.”
“Nevertheless. I want everyone to keep a civil tongue. Patsy, will you help me bring in the coffee?”
They work in silence in the kitchen. But she remembers where everything is and in short order the cups and cream are on a tray.
“You take that in and I’ll bring the coffee,” Eleanor directs Patsy.
This version, now 108 words, reads a little more smoothly and more importantly, is more focused on the action. You might think that the changes don’t make an earth-shattering difference and you would be right. But over the course of the novel, this kind of cleaning up and focusing can make the plot move forward faster and more effortlessly.
Copyediting the piece
This is the original passage with the edits.
Now that they are around the dinner table, Eleanor is tempted to let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Steve finally cuts the tension. “Well, quite the scene.”
“It’s just like him—” Patsy begins.
“That’s enough,” says Eleanor sharply. “We have a guest—we don’t air our dirty laundry in front of guests.”
“What, Kim?” Steve asks. “She’s not a guest. She’s practically family.”
Eleanor shakes her head. “Nevertheless. I want everyone to keep a civil tongue in their heads. Patsy, will you help me bring in the coffee?”
Eleanor and Patsy they work in silence in the kitchen. But she remembers where everything is and in short order the cups and cream are on a tray.
“You take that in and I’ll bring the coffee in when it’s done,” Eleanor directs Patsy.
It may be surprising that so many words were chopped out. But extraneous words and thoughts (when it’s done) just clog up the reading. Keep your reader focused on what you are really writing about.
So copyediting can and should be about punctuation, missed and extra words, misspellings, and other annoyances that might kick your reader out of your continuous dream. But it can also up the overall quality of the writing. And is worth doing.