Now it’s time to go through your manuscript to pick the nits and split the hairs to make it as clean as it can be so your brilliant storytelling, incisive characterizations, and deathless prose can shine through.
Read through your manuscript, making sure it conforms to the style choices you’ve made. At the same time, you’re going to check for spelling, grammatical, or usage errors or problems that could mar readers’ experience or understanding of your story.
Make sure you’re using your apostrophes correctly. Most apostrophes are used to indicate possession (Harry’s wand; the Malfoys’ money; see the section on possessives in my last post) or to denote an omission, as in a contraction (don’t; you’re; that’s) or another elision (rock ’n’ roll; go get ’em).
Don’t use an apostrophe to make a noun plural.
They drew their wand’s. [wrong!]
They drew their wands. [right!]
Very occasionally, an apostrophe is used to create a plural where there might otherwise be confusion.
Mind your p’s and q’s.
Scorpius is learning his abc’s.
One finicky little thing: When using an apostrophe to indicate an omission at the beginning of a word, make sure it’s facing the correct way.
Go get ‘em! [wrong way]
Go get ’em! [right way]
If your writing software uses smart quotes, it may automatically place an opening single quotation (‘) mark at the beginning of a word. You will need to manually change it to an apostrophe (‘), which looks the same as a closing single quotation mark. (If you’re using straight quotes, this won’t matter, since the marks look the same.)
As I mentioned in my prior post, dashes can be used to surround set-off or parenthetical statements. They can also be used to indicate interrupted speech, to interpolate narrative into dialogue, or to indicate to in a number range expressed in digits.
As you copyedit, make sure you’re using the correct dash for the purpose. Dashes for interrupted speech are always closed-up em dashes, while number ranges always take a closed-up en dash. Parentheticals and interpolations should use whatever dash style you’ve decided to use for these kinds of constructions.
“I hate you, Snape! You’re the worst teach—” [interruption; always uses closed-up em dash]
Harry didn’t attend Hogwarts during the 1997–1998 school year. [number range; always uses closed-up en dash]
Snape—the Potions teacher at Hogwarts—had greasy hair and a large nose. [parenthetical; can also use spaced en dash or spaced em dash]
“I can bewitch your mind”—Snape tapped a long finger on his forehead—“or ensnare your senses.” [narrative interpolation; can also use spaced en dash or spaced em dash]
Dashes can also have other uses; see your friendly style guide for more information on these.
Many words in English have more than one correct spelling. Look for words you’ve spelled inconsistently and make a list on your style sheet of your preferred spelling. Dictionaries and style guides often differ, for example, on whether a compound takes a hyphen, is closed up, or should stay as two words. For example, one of my favorite words can be spelled in any of the following ways:
copyeditor [preferred by the Chicago Manual of Style]
copy-editor [preferred by New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide]
copy editor [preferred by Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary]
Where there’s disagreement, it’s usually easiest to go with the first spelling in your dictionary of choice, but the decision is yours. If you diverge from your dictionary’s preferred spelling, note it in your style sheet.
Caution: Word’s spellcheck (and I imagine other programs’ spellcheckers) won’t always conform to your preferred dictionary’s spellings. When a word you aren’t sure of gets flagged, check it in your dictionary of choice.
The same goes for the proper names in your story. Make a list of the correct spellings the first time you encounter them and refer to the list as you copyedit.
Fanfic tip: For canon names, check canon spelling, either in the source material or an online source like a fandom wiki.
Capitalization in English can be tricky. Some words are capitalized in some contexts but lowercased in others.
How can I help you, Captain Shacklebolt?
Shacklebolt was a captain in the Aurors.
Your style guide will give you an indication of when to capitalize things.
For your story title and chapter titles, make sure your capitalization is consistent. The first and last words of a title are capitalized, but different style guides have different recommendations for dealing with articles, conjunctions, and prepositions that fall in the middle of a title. Some recommend lowercase for all of them; others recommend lowercase for any preposition of less than four letters.
Is your dialogue formatted correctly?
If you’re using a dialogue tag (like said), use a comma (or question or exclamation mark) at the end of the bit of dialogue and a lowercase letter for the first word of the tag, unless it’s a proper noun. (Examples below use US English format, i.e., double quotation marks.)
“Go away,” said Harry.
“Go away!” yelled Harry.
“Should I go away?” Harry asked.
If you’re using an action beat instead of a dialogue tag, use terminal punctuation (period, question mark, or exclamation mark) and an uppercase letter for the first word of the action beat.
“Go away,” said Harry.
“Go away!” yelled Harry.
“Go away.” Harry slammed the door in Draco’s face.
“The power of Christ compels you!” The crucifix fell from the wall, startling Father Damien.
Make sure you’re using paragraphs correctly. In narrative, new ideas, thoughts, or subjects take a new paragraph.
In dialogue, when the speaker changes, use a new paragraph. If you need to break a single speaker’s dialogue into separate paragraphs, omit the closing quotation mark on the preceding paragraph and use an opening quotation mark for the next paragraph.
“I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really hate you, Snape!
“You are the worst Potions teacher I’ve ever had, and I’m definitely never going to name my son after you.”
As you go through your manuscript, make sure the details of your story elements make sense.
Keep an eye out for inconsistencies in character traits. Appearance, habits, jobs, relationships—anything you need to keep track of should go on a list you can refer to as you edit. This list can be part of your style sheet or a separate document.
During your copyedit, check to make sure your timeline makes sense.
If you didn’t do it while you were writing or during your developmental or line edits, now is the time to jot down a list of dates and times of scenes, and what happens in them. Look them over to ensure you haven’t inadvertently created a time paradox that will require a Time-Turner to sort out.
Did May 3, 1998, fall on a Tuesday or a Wednesday? Was Croatia part of Yugoslavia in 1925? What was the top-selling pop single in the US on June 25, 1965?
Anytime you mention a real-world fact in your story, double-check to be sure your facts are right. A factual error might not be a big deal for most readers, but I can almost guarantee there will be some reader somewhere who will be annoyed by it.
If you quote directly from other people’s work, you should, at minimum, note it. If the work is still under copyright, consider if using the quotation will violate applicable copyright laws. This is a complex area and beyond the scope of this post, but the Creative Law Center’s page on using song lyrics in fiction provides some general guidance that applies to quoted material in general.
Consider putting any acknowledgments of copyright and permissions in an author’s note at the beginning or end of your posted fic and keep a record of any permissions you’ve been granted.
One of the final tasks in copyediting is to tidy up minor things. Here’s a brief checklist of things to do before you finish:
Software tools can be helpful at the copyediting phase.
Spellcheckers are good for flagging potentially misspelled words, but as I mentioned above, don’t rely on them; check your dictionary for words you aren’t sure of.
Find and replace can spot double spaces and lines and paragraph returns. If you learn how to use wildcard find and replace in word, you can fix many other things with a few clicks. (Jack Lyons’s Wildcard Cookbook for Word is a great resource.)
Word macros, if you learn how to use them, can help flag and fix a plethora of things, like unclosed quotation marks, poorly formatted dialogue, and inconsistent italics. (Paul Beverley’s wordmacrotools.com is a go-to for copyediting macros.)
Read aloud features, like the one in Word, are very helpful for spotting things like repeated or missing words.
Next up: Posting and Proofreading.
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