Concerning Self-Editing, Stealth Mountains and Regicide · 2:20pm Feb 26th, 2013
People liked this when I posted it in the Fallout: Equestria group, so I thought, why not copy it into my blog so a bunch more people can see it 
I wrote a second self-editing blog now! Check it out after you're done with this one.
For anyone starting to write, you can save yourself and any potential prereaders a LOT of trouble by putting some effort into self-editing. Editors are also usually a lot more inclined to help out on a story that looks at least halfway decent, and is written by someone who can at least construct correct English sentences in normal conversation situations.
So for all writers out there, beginning or otherwise, I got these pieces of advice. They're basically the same remarks I eventually end up giving to pretty much everyone I preread stuff for, so I might as well put it all together:
Equestria Daily has a very useful document called the "Editor's Omnibus". Especially the "Self-Editing" section contains a treasure of information on correct formatting. I suggest you read it through. FimFic itself also has a really handy Writing Guide, available in the Help dropdown menu at the top.
Learn the difference between "its" / "it's", "there" / "they're" / "their", "who's" / "whose", "then" / "than", "breath" / "breathe", and, as bonus round, "peek" / "peak".
(There are loads more of those, by the way. "defiantly" / "definitely", "to" / "too" / "two", "weary" / "wary", "horde" / "hoard", "sheer" / "shear", "palette" / "pallet" / "palate", etc...)
When using the ellipsis ("..."), ALWAYS put a space behind it. All modern web page renderers and text processors refuse to split on a period, meaning that something like "we got there eventually...but it took us all day." will refuse to split in the middle of the "eventually...but", if that happens to end up at the end of a line; it will be seen as one unsplittable block. The fact the whole thing ends up on the next line looks extremely weird, especially for long words. So, avoid that, simply by putting a space behind every ellipsis you use.
Keep your narration in one consistent tense. A story is either told as it happens, or afterwards. This has certain implications, too. For example, when writing in present tense, you can't foreshadow future events, since a present tense narrator can't know these yet. On the other hand, in past tense, you can't let your narrator be surprised about events happening in the story. If said narrator is an actual character, you can let him/her tell the reader how surprised s/he was when it happened, of course.
Get a good grasp of basic quoting rules (like the classic "s/he said" construction). This is fully explained in the Editor's Omnibus.
Try to avoid always referring to characters by description of their looks or race. It's okay to use names. When there's absolutely no confusion possible, switch to he/she, but if there are multiple same-gender characters, generally, just use their names. (Mind you, if anyone ever brings up "lavender unicorn syndrome", you have my permission to kick them in the face. Seriously.) Note that, of course, you ARE allowed to describe characters. The point is just to not do it all the time, and to never do it if it may confuse the reader. And obviously, it's generally used for characters that haven't been introduced by name yet.
When addressing a person in dialogue, separate the addressing term (usually the name) with commas, both before and after the addressing term (unless either of those happen to be the start or end of the sentence, of course). To make this perfectly clear, compare these two sentences:
"I kill, my Queen," the soldier said to Elisabeth. "That's what soldiers do."
"I kill my Queen," the soldier said to Elisabeth. "That's what soldiers do."
The first is the soldier saying, to his queen, that he kills. The second is the soldier saying he kills his queen. Quite a difference that little comma can make, no? So please, please pay attention to that. If only to avoid accidental regicide 
And finally... in any situation, even normal chat or posting in forums... write as if you're publishing. Use correct capitalization on the start of sentences and on 'I'. Be your own worst critic when it comes to spelling. Edit your own posts if you see mistakes, and try to avoid them in the first place. If you're unsure if something is correct, don't hesitate, just google it and get it right. This will give you the habit of writing correct English, which will make it much easier to write stories without mistakes.
You give the impression you don't understand what LUS means.
867239
No. I know what it means. I also know a lot of obsessive idiots (especially on ponychan/fic/) start whining about "lavender unicorn syndrome" from the moment you dare put a character description instead of a name anywhere in your story. In general, it's the people who have a habit of using the term that don't know what it means, and that annoys me to no end. Hence, if anyone uses it... screw them.
In fact, I was considering devoting a separate blog post to it...
Heck, one of my favourite fics on this site (Windfall / Earth & Sky by Warren Hutch) 'suffers' from Lavender Unicorn Syndrome... and you know what? I got used to it after reading a few chapters. It's no big deal, and I just consider it part of the writer's style. It'd probably look better if he didn't do it... but it doesn't decrease the quality of his writings.
MLP writers tend to be attracted to LUS due to the problem that nearly every character is 'she'. I tend to use male OCs for that reason, and that's why I made Green Grass... well... green. It was an experiment in how long I could keep a primary race of a character a secret, in a fic where the normal reference to said character is <color> <race> <gender> (Lavender unicorn mare, for example)
867285
Not sure how keeping that race a secret is in any way a good thing in a story... it goes towards unreliable narration. (Unreliable narration can be used in brilliant ways, though)
Commas prevent regicide. Advise of the day
867309 I personally love using unreliable narration when a villain is being introduced. It keeps them steeped in secrecy.
This is all pretty good advice.
Anoter hint that seems should exist: If you never really tried with your story, you should never really post.
867338
I guess that was kinda implied in the fact I basically said potential prereaders and editors won't look at a story twice if it isn't showing any signs of effort
867334
Well, even a reliable narrator should obviously not spoil the end of the story he's telling. Which is perfectly doable by simply describing and saying what the main character(s) feels and does at the time, without using future knowledge
867309 Well, if you want to take a look, the 'Reveal' is in Chapter 10 here. I think my commenters were just as funny as the story, they all kept expecting Green Grass to expire at the beginning of each chapter.
867240 But that's very different. This Is a great blog post about it. The author freely admits they prefer to overuse names but that tolerances vary wildly. To me they do a good job of giving a general outline and solid examples and ways to work around it. They do however warn that it's different for people and to take it with a grain of salt.
My problem with your wording is that you assume anyone citing LUS is just being a jerk. I've seen plenty of folks overreact but I've also seen it mentioned when it is occurring (Ie: A fic where each character is named once and then never again.
). I just dislike the whole tarring with the same brush attitude you showed. To me that's not much different from someone looking at a fic, seeing one character description and screaming LUS.
Am I making sense without seeming rude?
867621
It just seems to me that the term "Lavender Unicorn Syndrome" is invented by the kind of people who have this "we're better than you, and you're making a mistake we even gave a name to" attitude. Especially since no other such problems warrant the derogatory status of "syndrome"
So, yes, I do believe any people using the term are simply lowering themselves to that attitude. You could just say "try to use the characters' names more" instead of saying "Your story has Lavender Unicorn Syndrome". It's a matter of friendliness, and no matter how it's worded, the second one never sounds friendly. It quite literally says the story has some sort of sickness.
[edit]
I just glanced through that blog... let me just make this perfectly clear... I'm not in any way against fixing the overuse of descriptions; that's why I mentioned it in the list in the first place. I'm just against the use of that horribly derogatory "LUS" label.
It was a last minute addition, mind you, and I considered leaving it out altogether exactly to avoid the discussion we're having here. Terms like "Lavender Unicorn Syndrome" have no place in a list of friendly suggestions to new writers, since it's anything but friendly, by its very nature.
867541
Hee. I'll see if I can find some time to check it out
Y'know, I don't think I've ever come across a peek/peak confusion. Instead I see scores of lose/loose.
868100
That was mostly a joke, yea. I can't say I've ever encountered that one in actual storywriting. The "breath" / "breathe" one, on the other hand, always baffles me, since they're not even homophones...
That is a list of excellent advice.
As a side note, this is what my favorite shirt looks like:
images.signals.com/graphics/products/regular/HN3281.jpg
I relish the odd looks people give me.
868295
Ohmai. You went straight up from regicide to cannibalism
868317 I'm a Prince. It could still be considered regicide.
867677
I definitely agree that LUS is overused by folks with superiority complexes but I think to say anyone who uses it is that way is unfair. I think of it as rather tongue in cheek myself. As well there are plenty of other tropes that may not be called syndromes but can be just as derogatory. Wish-fulfillment, Mary Sues/Gary Stus come to mind.
I disagree with the attitude that using the term someone sounds worse than saying try to use the character names more often. As I said though i've always looked at is as a very tongue in cheek sort of thing and is simply silly.
I'm happy to agree to disagree either way.
870400
Wish-fulfillment and Mary Sues aren't related to bad writing though... they're simply bad concepts to turn into stories altogether. That's not covered in this blog. This is about the more technical aspects
In my humble opinion, stories should only be written for two reasons... one, because you think it's interesting to write about, and two, because you think other people will find it interesting to read about. If the second is never considered (and, honestly, in the aforementioned two kinds, they rarely are), it shouldn't be written at all
God save the Queen.
879248
No, no... commas save the Queen!
My favorite misspelling was "I will try to be shot".
915512
And not a single spelling corrector complained
What was that supposed to be? "short"?
916130
What was that supposed to be? "short"?
Yes.
By the way, another very common mistake is using "X and I" instead of "X and me". Even good authors often suffer of it, and it annoys me. I mean, come on, the rule is simple and natural, is it so hard to remember? Though, I guess, it looks more natural when your native language has full-fledged cases, not just minor traces of them, like English...
918294
"X and I" can be correct, as subject. Mind you, at the time you posted this, I wasn't even aware of any actual rules on that, hence why it wasn't in my post.
Though now I know the rule (make sure it's right when omitting the "X and" part) it sure does seem logical.
So,
for learning new stuff, I guess.
1040232
Please don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to show off by demonstrating that I know some obscure thing. This thing is rather basic for me, but I just have an advantage here being a native Russian speaker. Grammatical cases are prominent in Russian, and a basic rule about them is that when a sentence element is a list of nouns or pronouns separated by "and", "or" or commas, then all these nouns and pronouns are in the same case, and the case is the one that would be used if the list was replaced by a single noun or pronoun. (I would be surprised if it is different for any other Indo-European language that has cases.)
Of course, cases are a much less important grammatical category in English. There are only three of them - Nominative (Subject), Oblique (Object), and Genitive (possessive forms like "my", "mine" or "John's"), and Oblique is different from Nominative only for pronouns. So I understand that I cannot blame native English speakers for this rule not being ingrained to them as it is to me. But when I see the rule broken, it stands out for me (just like "This room is my brother's and I" instead of "This room is my brother's and mine" would), I just can't help feeling annoyed.
On the other hand, I probably make mistakes in the usage of English articles quite often because there are no articles in Russian. (I'm not sure at all whether I really should have used "the" before "usage" in the last sentence.)
1040447
Well, English is a train wreck of oversimplification, compensated by odd irregular cases, so yeah
867240
Hey, Nyerguds.
Should be 'I also know a lot of...'
Thought I'd 'correct your grammar' there, maybe I should make a blog about it for you?
1266809
"w" and "s" are right below each other on my keyboard. That was, in fact, a typo
1266818
Haha! The irony!
1266819
No irony involved; it wasn't a grammar error. I'm not perfect.... but I have an edit button, and I use it
this will defiantly help me...ill just bookmark it
1721682
Yeeah... I'm adding that to the list. "defiantly" ≠ "definitely". Look it up sometimes
How do you detect mistakes that you are blind to? I can read my story 50 times and miss something that the first reader will point out right away.
2720399
I don't read my story 50 times in a row. I just reread it a few weeks or months later, when I no longer know the exact sentence structures I intended to write back then
Also, you kind of automatically stop being blind to it when that reader points it out. Problem solved, lesson learned, and you know another thing you need to be careful with in the future. The largest part of self-editing is simply to never stop learning. You may feel embarrassed when that reader points it out, but the most important parts are that it got fixed, and that you learned something.
I know it's hard not to be OCD when it comes to finding every single mistake before publishing... but at some point you just gotta say "That's it. I won't find anything more. Maybe I'll find more errors later", and just go ahead and publish it.
We're not perfect... but the story should be.
Eventually.
2720399
On that note, another thing you can do (and I know some authors who do this) is to ask readers to give you any errors they spot, either in their comment or as PM. As a bonus, if there are indeed people who read and enjoy your story and who bother to go through the effort of spotting errors for you, then those people are usually just one question away from becoming your prereader
After all, they track your story, so they will want to read the next piece anyway. At that point, there's very little difference to them if you just allow them to read it a bit in advance
2720703 Thanks. I do get a bit OCD before publishing. I do hold out publishing, sometimes for months, to let the time pass between reads. I have a rule that I don't publish the story until I can read it without getting irked.
I think I'll do what ocalhoun suggested. I'll make a blog for my followers, so that they can give me feedback before publishing. I'll also try encouraging readers to point out mistakes in the author's note.
Thanks!
One that kills me every time I see it is when writers confused "peek" or "peak" with "pique," which is traditionally what's used in the phrase "her interest was piqued." In that context it means stimulated. Elsewhere, "piqued" means something more like "angered" or "irritated," while "peaked" means "tired."
"Her curiosity was peeked." Really?
"Her curiosity was peaked." On what mountaintop?
"She looked peeked." Uh. Looked? Peeked? Pick one verb for staring at things please...
"He looked peaked." So he looked tired?
Another one is when people write "for all intends and purposes" rather than "for all intents and purposes." (Notice the latter is two nouns, while the former is an and linking a verb and a noun.)
These come up with surprising frequency when I'm reading fanfic.
4813221
To be fair, someone's interest "peaking" could mean "reaching the highest point"... but that kind of implies a reduced interest after that point
(of course, worded as "was peaked" would still be grammatically incorrect
)
4813920
You are correct on both those points. :)
I chose my wording carefully.
Blog posts should be thumbable.
5043657
...I hope that would be an up-thumb, then