Five Easy Steps to Clean Up Your Manuscript’s Language
Language edits are generally less intimidating than story edits. You’re not making big, sweeping changes to the book, so language edits are more mechanical. Or at least, the kind I’m talking about today are.
You can, of course, edit your language for flow, imagery, and rhythm to make sure the prose carries the tone you want. However, that’s called line editing and is separate from the language edits I’m discussing today.
Today, we’re talking about how to go about cleaning up the language in your manuscript so that it’s readable, clear, and professional.
Here are five things you can do to clean up your language without thinking too hard about it.
1. Run a basic spelling and grammar check.
Spelling and grammar checks aren’t perfect, and you shouldn’t rely on them for everything. However, they can help point out egregious typos and errors. Just be sure to look at each word or phrase it’s asking you to change before you accept it!
2. Do a search for and remove various filler and filter words.
We often add words we don’t need when we speak or write. These are filter and filler words. Filter words are words that filter the reader’s experience of the text through the character’s lens. For example, Sarah heard the dogs barking outside. Filler words are words that don’t add to your text, like very, highly, or just.
You don’t need to take them all out, but you probably used more than you think you did.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of filter and filler words to check for in your manuscript.
o See, feel, hear, observe, realize, watch, thought, notice, wonder
o Really, very, highly, just, probably, might, maybe
3. Check for passive voice.
Passive voice is when the traditional English SVO (subject + verb + object) sentence construction (active voice) is inverted, placing the object at the beginning of the sentence and often removing the subject completely.
Active voice: She pushed back her hair.
Passive voice: Her hair was pushed back.
Passive voice isn’t wrong, but it can be overused. It can also get wordy, and passive voice makes it hard for the reader to understand who is doing the action.
You don’t have to cut all passive voice from your manuscript—sometimes it’s necessary and/or useful—but focusing on active storytelling will make your writing clearer.
4. Check how many times you’ve used language about “eyes.”
You won’t believe how obsessed we are with eyes until you do a search for that word in your manuscript! You should also do a check for verbs about eyes, like glanced and gazed.
Don’t worry if you’re horrified by the number of times you’ve used eye imagery. It’s common in first drafts, but it can become repetitive and clutter your writing if left in.
5. Check for redundant phrases:
Letting words flow is great when drafting, but often, that means redundant phrases creep into our writing. Phrases like shrugged their shoulders can be shortened to shrugged. What else do you shrug but your shoulders? Same with nodded their head, which can be shortened to nodded.
An exception would be if a character shrugged one shoulder. That’s less common and should be clarified.
TL;DR
Going through your whole document line by line to do a language edit can be overwhelming, but these five steps will allow you to cut some of the overwhelm by giving you specific things to look for. Following the steps also allows you to cut down on time by searching for certain words!
Will you be making this a part of your editing routine?