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| One of the gorgeous roses in the Halifax Public Garden |
Summer is half over and I still have not finished my WIP for my Beta readers. I swore I would have the manuscript (ms) done for my funeral home mystery by the end of April, then the end of May, then the end of June...mmmm....My mother always told me not to swear. At this point in time, I only have seven chapters to go. I plan to get it finished up this week, even if I have to stay up all night, every night!
WRITING TIP--Using the Kindle for Editing
Before allowing Beta reader eyes on the story, I use the Kindle reader as my final tool. I email my MS Word doc to my Kindle address. The address is found on your amazon account information. Then I can read the ms on my Kindle similar to an eBook, but the formatting is not perfect. It's a different way of looking at the words and pages making it helpful to find errors.
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| Reading the manuscript on the KIndle and yes, I do have this old Kindle too. |
I was amazed at how many punctuation errors I made. No period, too many periods, commas I needed to add or delete, and punctuation marks where they shouldn't be and where they should be.
I also noted awkward or long sentences, sentences that sounded like a second grader wrote them, and formatting issues such as indenting a new paragraph.
The text-to-speech program on the Kindle is helpful too. Listening to the story catches many oddly written conversations or sentences. Yes, the Kindle voice is rather monotone and boring, so I can't listen for long stretches at a time.
Have you ever tried using the Kindle for editing? Please share some of your most helpful ways of editing your stories.
If you would like tips on editing, the writing process, publishing and marketing, check out the eBook, Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing. Fifteen romance and mystery authors share writing tips they have gleaned from their experiences as “on-the-job” writers. The tips are organized into the main topics of writing, publishing, and marketing. The novelists also reveal the “light bulb moments” in their writing journey, questions they are asked most often, and the best advice on writing they have received. By offering their expertise, the authors hope to smooth the sometimes rocky road for new writers toward a rewarding career in writing. All proceeds from the sales of the eBook will go to local public libraries. Find the eBook on amazon.
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4 comments:
I think I invented this when I got my first Kindle. I went around telling writers to use it for editing. I was met with crickets. But that's the story of my life. I'm glad to see it's catching on.
The best Kindle to use is the original with keyboard. That's the only way I type with my thumbs.
Hey Marva, maybe you're the one that told me to try this. Thank you. My daughter gave me the Kindle like the one pictured. More mechanical style. You actually have no touch screen. I do like to read on it better because there's no backlight, but haven't really used the keyboard on it too much.
I'm going to try this, JQ if and when I can get this next book finished. LOL I don't use Scrivner. I know folks who love the program, but I just couldn't manage the time to learn it. (That sounds like bad grammar!) It's late and I'm runnign late, only excuse, and I'm sticking to it. :)
Hi Marsha, I found the only draw back to using the Kindle is after highlighting all the errors, it takes a lot of time to find that location in your ms.!! But worth it. I have friends who swear by Scrivener, but I never tried it either because it is a huge learning curve and I didn't want to take the time or add to the frustration. LOL...Thank you for leaving a comment.
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