Today, Fable and the Verbivore are digging into some of our favorite editing resources.

Throughout the episode, we bring up different books and resources that have been useful to us in our revision and editing processes as well as what we feel they bring to our written work.

Here they are:

• The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

• Lists of softening language words and filler words

• Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

• Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell

• Lists of active/strong verbs

• Lists of detailed descriptor words

• Lists of overused words

• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, 2nd edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King

• The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated): An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner

Towards the end, we talk about getting out of the writer mindset and putting on the editor lens. Reading books or articles from the perspective of an editor can help with that. But, also, reading as a beta reader or editor for someone else’s story can help teach you how to see written work from an editing perspective. We’ve also found it a helpful exercise for better seeing own work and identifying some of the habits we fall into.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Definitions:

• Editing - Prepare (written material) for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it. Remove unnecessary or inappropriate words, sounds, or scenes from the text. Refining, polishing, making it more like itself.

Fable and the Verbivore reference a quote by Mark Twain. Here is that quote:

• “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Here are some articles and videos that we found helpful in preparation for this conversation:

• WritersWrite “Simplify Your Writing – Avoid These 44 Overused Words & Phrases”

• Louis Dockery “6 Words You Need to Stop Using in Your Work Vocabulary”

• CNBC “Want to sound more confident? Avoid these 11 words and phrases that make you look ‘weak,’ say grammar experts”

• ServiceScape “Remove These 30 Words and Phrases from Your Writing Now”

• Lit Reactor “8 Words to Seek and Destroy in Your Writing”

• BookCave “17 Weak Words to Avoid in Your Writing”

• Leslie Ann McDaniel “WRITING LESSON: REPEAT OFFENDERS-THE 10 MOST OVERUSED WORDS IN FICTION”

• Jerry Jenkins “249 Strong Verbs That’ll Spice Up Your Writing”

• ReedsyBlog “265+ Forceful Verbs to Turn You Into a Literary Tyrannosaurus”

• WritersHelpingWriters.com “Active Verbs List”

• Dragon Writing Prompts “1000 Verbs to Write By”

• Self-Publishing School “Strong Verbs: An Easy Guide for Using & Understanding Strong Verbs”

• NowNovel “Adjectives for description: 60 precise words”

• 7esl.com “Descriptive Words: 700+ Describing Words in English (with Useful Examples)”

• The Verbivore’s Pinterest Collection “Descriptor Words”

Books, Movies, and Graphic Novels Mentioned:

• The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

• Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

• Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell

• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, 2nd edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King

• The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated): An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)