Or green. Or purple.
Word Nerd doesn't edit in red pen too often... too many memories of bleeding papers from graduate school. *shudder*
But after a two-week push to crank out the next section of the work-in-progress, the real work now begins: The self-editing.
Why put yourself through this, you ask? Why not let the critique group do this work?
Simply because Word Nerd knows this section is not as good as she can make it yet. There are places that need more description, places where adverbs need to be cut, places where transitions are abrupt and choppy. There are the places in the manuscript with "MORE HERE" that well, need more there to make the scene exciting.
By the time it gets to the crit group, the section needs to be the best 20,000 words that Word Nerd can muster. The job of the crit group is to find the places where Word Nerd thought things were OK but aren't.
The self-edit is time-consuming and very critical. Word choice, descriptions, placement, character development -- everything is subject to change.
Good thing Word Nerd just got a new package of green pens.
3 comments:
Some teachers have moved to purple and green for that very reason. Makes you wonder if kids will grow-up with the fear of a different color.
Perhaps. But unless you're a Klingon (or whatever aliens bleed green), there's no way green ink looks nearly as violent.
Vulcans bleed green. Klingons bleed lavender.
But that's not common knowledge. :)
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