Editing Books and Blogs Learn From My Mistakes

Blog Broken – Editing Blogs and Books – Learn From My Mistakes

Help! My blog is broken! And it’s my fault. I’ve been editing books and blogs and have failed at blog editing.

You see, I was in my Word Press admin account and I had a message that my core files had changed. One was missing and there were three that didn’t belong.

So I restored the core files. Without backing up.

Wrong. Fail.

If you’re on this website before my programmer fixes it (Please hurry!) you know it’s crud.

After it’s fixed, it should look normal. As normal as Zombie Turkeys are normal.

What Should I Have Done When Editing Books and Blogs?

First, back up my site before changing it.

That’s true for you too. Please learn.

Same thing goes for books. Back up your latest copies.

What about editing?

Blogs are easy compared to books.

But I know more about editing books. I completed one novel

I’ve been busy editing my next book, My Undead Mother-in-law.

I have multiple copies of my books on multiple computers and in multiple online storage services (Google drive for example).

But I didn’t back up my blog. Back up yours, please.

So How’s My Undead Mother-in-law Editing Going?

Fun. I’m charting out all my scenes by chapter and noting the number of words in each chapter and scene. If you want to get a free copy of the spreadsheet I’m using for this, check my blog post on 5 Tips on editing to find out how to get it.

Using the spreadsheet I get a sense of how my story arc goes and where it’s not balanced.  I also realized where I’m missing necessary scenes. Finally, for each scene, I summarize it and what effect I want it to have on the reader. That really helps.

Every scene should accomplish character development, plot development, and/or provide necessary background information. And be entertaining. Or create tension, or an emotional effect, like horror, fear, sadness, laughter, relief.

Great writing does all this, at once.

Is your writing great?