How To Avoid Writing An Awful Manuscript
As an editor and as a writing coach, I know just how awful some manuscripts actually are. I’ve often puzzled how a reasonably intelligent person can write a 1,000 word article or a 60,000 word book and have no idea that it’s a terrible piece of writing.
Maybe they have simply gotten caught up in the passion of an idea and haven’t honed it so they know exactly what they want to say. Some, I’m sure, think the writing game is easy, but most of them seem simply not to have a clue.
Is there a way to avoid committing this kind of writing? Maybe. Here are my best suggestions:
Put any manuscript you think is finished aside for at least a week. Two weeks or even a month is even better. You’ll be able to read it with fresh eyes and if you read carefully, you’ll often know if it’s good enough to submit. In the beginning, it probably won’t be, but this cold reading will also give you some clues about what you need to do. (Implicit in this is not trying to make a deadline – not until you’ve got the experience to do so.)
Read their work out loud. For beginners, it works even better to read out loud into a tape recorder and then listen to the result. This can be embarrassing and painful, but the ear often will pick up problems the eye seems incapable of seeing.
Remember, writing, like any skill, needs practice – lots of it – sometimes years and hundreds of thousands of words. But it’s hard to get worse at something you practice, so write and write and write. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself as you read your own work. On the whole, writing is a learnable skill.
If you think you might benefit from a writing coach or mentor, check out Writing With Vision.
Write well and often,
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POSTED IN: Freelance Writing Tips and Ideas, Notes from a Writing Coach
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