Editing Tip: Kindle Time

stepsinbetween

May 7

You've typed, The End, at the bottom of your draft. After revising your pages several times, made the listed fixes from your developmental editor's notes, it's time to…what?

Query? Send your manuscript off to publish? Not quite yet. Although I know there are many more unmentioned steps between the few suggested above, here is my favorite new find. Read your story like a book…on Kindle.

Maybe you already know this trick, but it was new to me. Here's what I do now. I send a pdf of my story to my email, and from there open it on my smart phone, choose the share option, and keep swiping until I see my Kindle app. You will have to let me know if it works for other E-Readers, but if you have Kindle, oh my gosh! It is amazing!

I was able to read my manuscript on my Kindle as if it was already a book. This new discovery has made all the difference in the world. Seeing my words stretched across the screen in a different setting, one I can't just edit or revise right then and there helps me to read the whole story through as a reader might. If I catch things I want to edit or revise, I highlight them and leave a note. Once I finish, I pull up the itemized notes from the app and sit down at my computer to fix and fancy my draft…or should I say, final draft.

This has been a game-changer for me. What editing tricks work for you? Do share--we writer need to stick together!

Happy writing, happy editing, happy reading,

Celaine Charles