POLISHING TIPS

Sorry folks,

I've been too bit busy with Collection #2 to post like I'd prefer.  With any luck, it should be done and in the can on schedule (11/13/11).

For this post, I thought I'd write about the act of polishing.  What is "polishing"?  It's that phase in the editorial process where you make your piece less sucky.  Let's face it folks, when that first draft's done, it's got holes in it.  You won't see them in the beginning, but they're there.  You can't just run it through the spell-checker and send it off to a publisher.  If you do, they'll think of you as an unworthy amateur.

Remember: your story only has one chance to make that solid first impression.  So, "polish" your work like a rough-cut jewel until it glistens.  Set the piece aside for a while, then read through it and fix whatever you spot as wrong.  Maybe your main character's dialogue is off.  Or you mix past and present tenses within your story.  Hell, you might realize that it's hopelessly awful and decide to start over.  But by going through this godawful process, your work becomes better and so do your writing chops.  When you feel it's ready, THEN you shoot for publication . . . and hope you're right.

With that in mind, here are some tips that I hope you'll find to be useful:

1.) I read through and polish my stuff (at least) three times before I send it off to my editor.  And after he's looked at it for the first time (and given me critiques), I'll polish it a few more times before I send it back to him again for a final polish.  Usually, a story goes to him at least twice before it gets locked into any book I do.

2.) I'll put (at least) one day between polishes.  Never polish a story, take a quick break, and then polish it again.  You'll always get better results if you look over a story with "refreshed" eyes.  Step away from it and do something else.  And when you get back to the story, you'll almost always see ways to make it better.  Don't rush it.  If a piece isn't ready, then it's not ready.  Polish it up and make it ready, however long it takes.

3.) Read it aloud (preferably alone).  I can't stress the importance of this one tip.  You'll spot more screw-ups reading a story aloud than you will just by reading it.  You'll pick up on weak dialogue, grammatical goofs, logical flaws, etc.  Yeah, it's weird.  But I'm right on this.  Don't believe me?  Pick up something you've just written and read it aloud.  You'll end up a believer.

4.) Become an expert in the trivial.  The more stuff you know, the more stuff you can add into your writing.  For example, you could write a story scene about a guy getting hit by a big black SUV.  Or you can write a story scene about that same guy getting hit by a black, 6,500-pound 2011 Durango with a V8 engine.  Which is better?  Yes, some pieces can have a minimalistic lack of detail.  But others just shouldn't.  And, of course, check your facts.  Read books, surf the 'Net, and don't isolate your mind just because you're writing a book. 

5.) Details matter.  How much or how little you want to put down in a story's up to you.  I've seen extremes in both.  Whenever there's a story with too much detail, I just skim through it.  It's the ones with too little detail that make me grind my teeth, because they don't give you enough of a picture to fully understand the piece.  So please, when polishing, make sure that someone who reads your work for the first time can understand CLEARLY what you're trying to say.  Give them a detailed, high-def colored window into your story. 

Hope this is of use.