| By :
Mark Etinger
Before you take your hundred thousand word masterpiece to book binding services, fight the temptation to immediately box it up and send it off - you still have work to do. It's time for one final edit. Here's how to do it. Reading on a page is different from reading on a computer, in the same way it's different from reading out loud. As you may have figured out, reading out loud is a good way to test the fluidity of your writing, but reading it in manuscript form is a good way to test the readability of it, to see how it will feel when it comes back from the book binding services. Print out your manuscript double-spaced, with wide margins. Start reading. Have a pen nearby to mark errors as well as a notebook in which to write missed ideas, loose threads and scenes you may want to include later on. Then set a goal for yourself to finish revising. Two weeks to a month is a good amount of time to spend working on it. Then think about these questions: does the beginning of the story seize the reader? Is the conflict immediately evident? If not your reader may not want to slog it out and even if the second half is when all the fun happens, she won't ever reach it because she'll have put it down. Does each character belong? Does he come back or make a timely exit? If he changes, did you account for the change? Does each character exist? Is the dialogue real or does it seem like its lifted from a TV show? By the end of the book should be resolution. All of the subplots, main plots and characters should experience some kind of closure. In terms of formatting, each chapter should have a consistent heading. Look at grammar, spelling and word choice - as Mark Twain said, the difference between the right word and the wrong one is the difference between lightning bug and lightning bolt. Then look at whether all of the scenes are important to the book. They should develop the characters, move the plot, and add to the world you've created; if they don't, these scenes should meet the chopping block. When you're done editing, only then can you go back and rewrite. If you jump around or stop to rewrite while reading you may realize later that you fixed the problem you originally encountered. Finally, when that's done, print it out again and give it one last edit. After those problems are fixed, then you can mail it to book binding services.
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