Self-Editing for Writers: Part 1, Mechanics

Article by Kathy Teel

There are two opposing truths I want you to hold in your head at the same time. Ready?

1. The mechanics of writing matter enormously. I’m talking commas, semicolons, grammar, spelling, etc. It matters.
2. You will seldom be rejected by an agent, publisher, or acquisitions editor because of mechanics if your story is really good.

The last thing I want you to think right now is, “If I won’t be rejected because of mechanics, then I don’t have to worry about it.” You do have to worry about it. Mechanics are the tools of your craft, and if you don’t have the right tool, you don’t have the right story. Imagine a painter approaching a landscape and saying, “That’s not exactly the color blue I wanted for the sky, but it’ll do.” If it’s the wrong blue, the wrong tool, then it’s not the picture he really wanted to create, right? Neither is your story the story you wanted to create if you don’t have the proper tools.

But it’s also true that some writers have brilliant stories in their heads, full of action, meaning, and emotion, but these writers have never been able to grasp the difference between a run-on sentence and a comma splice. Those writers won’t be turned out in the cold, because publishers, editors, and readers want stories like that. Mechanics can always be repaired if necessary.

It’s frustrating as an editor to have to correct every little bit of punctuation, though. I had one author (who is, yes, now published) who seemed to have confused periods and commas, letting sentences go on when they should be complete, and stopping incomplete clauses for no reason. It was very tedious to go through her manuscript and delete commas to replace them with periods, do the same for periods, and modify the corresponding capitalization.

The bottom line is that as an author, you are not just responsible for the story, but for the readers’ experience, and bad mechanics distract the reader--even if the reader is just an editor, and not one of the millions who will buy your book once it’s out. You have a duty to make your manuscript the best it can possibly be, and that includes mechanics as well as character and plot development.

Even if you’re not a grammar Nazi, like most editors are, you can still get your manuscript clean and presentable by doing the following things.

• Buy a copy of a good manual of style. The illustrated Strunk and White is both useful and amusing, and it will give you everything you need, but there are other good ones. Most fiction publishers use the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, and most non-fiction publishers use either AP style or (if it’s really academic) Turabian or MLA. I suggest that fiction authors stick to Strunk and White, though; it’s clear and easy and will keep you out of trouble.

• Read other books. A lot. One thing I ask myself when editing a particularly challenging manuscript is, “When has this author ever seen dialogue written like this?” Maybe it’s not dialogue, maybe it’s something else, but the point is, if you pay attention to how things look in other books, you’ll get a sense for how they should look in yours.

• Read your book out loud. Part of what punctuation and grammar do for writing is to establish a sense of rhythm. Read your chapters out loud—what’s the rhythm like? Did you stop when you meant to stop, and did you mean to have such long rambling sentences? Do things flow, do they make sense, when you read them out loud?

• Learn the rules. Rules do not stifle your creativity; they free it. Think about the jazz greats and their soaring improv—you can’t riff on sax, guitar and piano like that, straight from the heart, without thousands of hours of scales, exercises, and study. I’m not suggesting you go back to third grade and start diagramming sentences again (although that’s an incredibly useful exercise). Just find a good grammar site (try Grammar Girl and The Oatmeal) and master one rule at a time. It doesn’t take long before you are doing it right without even thinking about it. My suggestion is that you begin with the rules of punctuation around dialogue, since more mechanics mistakes are made there than anywhere else.

Of course, even grammar can be subjective, and after all your hard work, an editor might change all your ellipses to em-dashes anyway. But a manuscript that offers clean mechanics is worth its weight in gold to an editor or publisher for two reasons: it’s less work for them, and it leaves them free to enjoy the story. And isn’t that what you want for all your readers?

Coming soon: Self-Editing Part 2, Writing Style

Kathy Teel is a freelance writer and editor. She has been writing for NouveauWriter since July 2010. Are you thinking of self-publishing your novel? Kathy Teel runs No Disclaimers Beta Services, and can help you get your manuscript ready for publication. NDBS can even help you market it once it’s out there.