Have you noticed how professionals always hound authors to have their books edited? Anything you read about writing and publishing includes this advice. Some of you decide that you don’t need or want an editor because you know your way around punctuation and spelling. You have a handle on the fine points of grammar.
But there is another service editors can provide that you may not realize you need. She can make sure that you have been consistent throughout your story or your nonfiction book.
For example, did you inadvertently use the wrong name in an important quote—you meant to attribute it to Joe and you accidentally typed Marsha’s name. Or maybe you changed a character’s name from Harry to Hank in midstream. But you neglected to change all instances of Harry. Oops. Did you maintain the same spelling for a character or place name? This can get real touchy when you are writing a fantasy or otherwise making up place names, for example. Is it Crimia or Crimea? Did you mean for it to be Plaggerly or Plegarly?
Some authors change the way their character’s look—she starts out with curly brown hair and, without explanation, she suddenly she’s a blond. Or he is tall and lanky in one scene and burley in another. I’ve seen this happen. If she changes her hair color or he becomes buff, tell your readers. Otherwise, make sure that you stay true to your characters.
It’s easy to use different arrangements of some words. If you use heartwarming, stick with this throughout. Don’t use heart-warming in some places and heart warming in others. Is the word hyphenated or not? Two words or not? Find out and be consistent.
During research, you might discover that there are conflicting facts or stats with regard to something you want to use in your book. Sometimes you have to choose one. Once you do, make sure that you don’t waver. You’ll lose credibility with your readers if you report one statistic in one place and a different one in another.
As an editor, I can tell you that inconsistency is a common problem among authors. There is something about an author’s eye that seems to prevent them from seeing the discrepancies in their work. That’s one more excellent reason why you really should hire an editor.
Another habit many authors have in common is the fact that they repeat words. Rather than coming up with a different word to make their sentences more interesting, they will use the same word twice or three times. Here’s an example, “He sat next to the babbling brook, enjoying the splashing water as a dog swam nearby, splashing in the water.” Or “Dora came in from outside still feeling the cool outside air chill in her bones.”
Today, why don’t you spend time going through your book in progress and determine whether or not you are committing some of these author’s sins. Get a head start on preparing your manuscript for the editor. The cleaner your manuscript, the less time it will take a good editor to get through it and the less you will have to pay.