More Editing - singular/plural

During your first-level editing, you will also be looking for singular/plural usage. Firstly, look for those words that need an irregular ending to make them plural. For example, antenna is singular; if you are writing about more than one radio or TV antenna, the plural is antennas; if you are writing about insects, the plural you need is antennae. Here are a few more:

datum (singular), data (plural) (Note: colloquially data is used as singular)
bacterium (singular), bacteria (plural)
criterion is (singular), criteria (plural)
medium is (singular,) media (plural)
stratum is (singular,) strata (plural)

If you're not sure, use your dictionary, which will tell you if a word is singular or plural. It surprises me sometimes that many writers obviously do not check word usage; this is the sign of the amateur and many editors, when they see a work peppered with mistakes like this, will not read further. Of course, if the work is brilliantly original, or if you're a 'known name' a publishing house will work with you to correct errors, but if not, you need to get it right first time.

As you work through, editing your manuscript, you will come to realise that the actual writing takes but a fraction of time compared to the work you will need to do afterwards.

Watch things like:

sister-in-law (singular) and sisters-in-law (plural). I often see 'sister-in-laws' which is incorrect. Colloquially, we do see 'the in-laws' but this is not quite the same.

Collective nouns refer to groups, and these can be singular or plural. If you think of the group as a single unit, use a singular verb. If you think of the group as a number of individuals, use a plural verb. For instance:

Our little group is complete again.
A second group are those parents who feel that they were too harsh.

Our family isn't poor any more.
My family are perfectly normal.

Misused Words

Following on from yesterday, let's take a side-track and look at some of the words that are commonly misused. In English, there are many words that sound similar but which have different meanings, and many words that are different, and mean nearly the same thing, but will confuse your reader if you use them in the wrong place. There are many; I've listed a couple here but I would suggest that you seek out a full list of them, and be careful that the words you use in your story, novel or article, mean exactly what you want them to.

affect/effect

This is one that I come across often in my role as editor. Affect, as a verb, means to influence, to have consequences, as in these examples:

• The decision affected workers in all industries.
• I was very much affected by the glorious singing.

Affected, as an adjective, means artificially showing off, putting on an act:

• He spoke with an affected English accent.

Affect, affected and affective also have psychological meanings; look these up in a good dictionary.

Effect, as a verb, means to cause something to happen, to bring it about:

• He was well out of the crease, but effected a brilliant recovery to avoid being stumped.
• After much litigation, a settlement of the dispute was effected.

Effect, as a noun, means a result or consequence, as in:

• The effect of this decision was lamentable.

accept/except

Accept has a range of meanings that include to take or receive; or to agree (to), admit or believe:

• The television hostess will accept the award on behalf of her show
• Her competitiors accept the judges' decision.

Except means to leave out or exclude:

• Vaccinations are compulsory and the school can except no student.
• Everybody has had coffee except me.

The Editing Process : the first level edit

Over the next week or so I'm going to concentrate on the editing process, talking about the different edits you'll need to do before you send your work out to find a publisher. Begin the first level edit after you have left your first draft aside for awhile, so that you come to it with a fresh eye.

Writers generally use too many words and your job is to read through your work, find and eliminate these. You'll probably find many redundant words; for instance:

an invited guest
a new recruit
usual custom
blue in colour
plan in advance
5 a.m. in the morning
smile on her face
completely surrounded
more superior
really dangerous
cancel out
connect up
merge together

Then you will need to find all those phrases that can be replaced by one word, for example:

a large number of (many)
during the time that (when)
in regard to (about)
on a regular basis (regularly)

There are plenty of good books that will help you with the correct use of words such as, who/that; the/of; as/to/by...and so on.

Make sure that all the words you have used in your story/article are the right words. Do they mean exactly what you want to convey? Make good use of your Thesaurus - an 'almost right word' will not be good enough. When you have all the words right, you will be ready to move onto the next stage of the editing process.

Just do it!

Formal education cannot give us creativity of expression, cannot impart talent, cannot make us skilled writers. What makes a writer is the act of 'doing'. To write we actually need to unlearn spelling and punctuation, forget grammar, and put aside all our assumptions about good and bad writing. Forget everything you have learned and stop thinking! Just write. Just do it.

I know what you're thinking now; a few of my posts here have been about punctuation and grammar, and I've spoken about forms of writing, and so on. But that's all 'after' the act of actually writing. The first draft, the 'story' you're passionate about, the thing you want to say, should be spilled onto the page or pages without recourse to your editor.

When you come to write, just do it; sit down, stop thinking, and write. Forget what anyone has ever said to you about writing, just do it. After you have put it all down, no matter what order or form it's in, then it will be time time for you to tidy it up.

If you can't stop thinking, begin with what you are thinking, even if it's rubbish. Just write, and keep on writing. Just do it. Before you know it you will find yourself writing without thinking and when you stop, there it will be, the story you wanted to write. Of course, it will need work, but it will have passion, it will be what you wanted to say, and it will be sincere.

If you still have problems, write down in a list all the negative thoughts that come into your mind. Banish them to your list, then screw the list up and throw it in the bin.

Just do it; just write.

Writing Exercise

Practice using and understanding point-of-view and how it works with this writing exercise:

Look at some of the stories you have written and try to see what would happen to them if they were told from a different point of view. Or write a new short story just for this exercise and try it from as many points-of-view as possible.

Compare the results and analyse what is missing from each point-of-view used. What works and what doesn't? This exercise will help you understand why one point-of-view works or does not work in one particular story.