Aug
1st
2015
How I edit my stories in steps · 8:14pm Aug 1st, 2015
1. First, I copy paste the story in Natural Reader, or desktop application ReadForMe.
2. I then transcript the story to mp3 format.
3. I increase the volume of mp3 file with Mp3Gain.
4. I listen to my story with my mp3 player and write down all the irks that I hear.
5. I fix all the mistakes that I found in step 4.
I repeat these steps 50-200 times, depending on how much mistakes I find.
When I can’t find any more mistakes, I try finding myself an editor. Sometimes I don’t find one, so I just publish the story and hope to see some extra feedback from the comment section. This is why I try to be online when the story is published, so that I can fix any mistakes that anypony points to in the comments.
What is your editing process?
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Bad Dragon · 705 views
· Story: Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul
·
#edit
#editing
#mp3
#increase volume
#NaturalReader
#Mp3Gain
This is such a good way to edit things!
... Me? I read the stories out loud to my siblings.
Not as good as your idea.
Awesome. Thank you for posting this!
How long does this take?
~OreoKookie
3293128 It can take months, but when the story is waiting there on your user page, you can be confident that you did everything in your power to fix it. You can almost be okay with what you wrote after you conclude this process, along with using all the editing tools, of course.
http://auto-reviewer.appspot.com
http://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/english-spelling-grammar
http://www.onlinecorrection.com
http://www.spellcheck.net/grammar-checker
http://www.slickwrite.com
http://www.paperrater.com/free_paper_grader
http://www.writersdiet.com/WT.php
http://hemingwayapp.com
http://www.polishmywriting.com/
https://www.grammarly.com
http://spellcheckplus.com/
http://www.grammarcheck.me/
3293504
Damn son, I can't say it is not effective though. Thank you.
~OreoKookie
God damn, that sounds way too long. Now I get why the progress of your stories takes so many time.
I write.. and then I look at it for while... and then I ask for an editor, but I find none... and then I post it up on my page for people passing by to read it. (It never gets much views down there.) And that's it.
how many mistakes?
Sorry, I... I just couldn't help myself. This is a post about editing, after all. Good stuff though.
The first few stages of my editing process are also incorporated—or more accurate to say—facilitated by my writing process. I write by hand first, using pencil and paper, which means it must be digitally transcribed. During the transcription process I'm forced to look at every paragraph, sentence, word, and punctuation. Typically, I read it aloud to myself as I do, to ensure everything sounds right, and it is in step time that I make the most changes.
I don't transcribe directly to FiMFiction, and instead use Google
docsDrive (it's called drive now... for reasons). On Google Drive I do an auto-spellcheck, and then manually check by reading the passages backwards. Reading backwards prevent's your brain from just skipping over things that it assumes are correct, because nothing makes sense when read backwards.Sometimes, from there, I color code passages by what they do for the story if it's particularly long, and if I find uncolored sections I have a good hard look at why, then consider removing them entirely.
After that I duplicate the file, and clear the formatting, and submit it to proof-readers. (I'd normally link my blog post on proofreading here, but I know that you know what they are.) After I make any changes my proof-reader and I can agree on, then I do all of the above with just the changes, before bringing it into FiMFiction. Once on FiMFiction, and after the appropriate formatting changes are made for the new venue, I read it aloud to myself for timing a second time, and make any minor edits to improve flow control before publishing it.
I do this for each chapter, and typically re-read prior chapters to look for changes that need to be made to accommodate, or foreshadow, the new chapters I've written. Once the whole story is done then, and only then, do I publish my first chapter.
3826152 You seem to be even more organized than I am.
Do you enjoy your editing process? I kind of hate mine. It frustrates me and feels like I'm standing still. I'd rather just write away instead. That's not an option, though. Mistakes shouldn't be tolerated.
3826376 I consider editing to be work, and the cost of creating something that I enjoy (doing it right or not at all as my dad always said). So, I really don't think about it as "doing something I enjoy" as much as I think about it as "doing what must be done" for something that I enjoy. It's a subtle, minor distinction, but one I think you may be able to get behind.
What I enjoy is the ideas, and organizing them conceptually (story-boarding and proof-reading). For me even writing the prose is a bit of work, and the editing is a bit more work, but the finished product is the goal so I put in the work. However, since what I enjoy is the first part of writing, I find myself working on a lot more at once than I really should, and tend to get overwhelmed.
Right now I have, like, 10 open story ideas and am writing prose for 4 of them. I will then have to edit them, which is where I typically weed stories down to one at a time. So, I can't say I'm more organized than you, I'm just organized differently.
3827555 I like to produce quality, also. Writing and editing is on the verge of being painful at times, but I guess there's just no other way around it. If we are to produce a story, we just have to accept the whole process, not just the fun part of it.
You strike me as somepony who's quite dedicated to writing. May I ask what drives you? What would your life look like if you gave up writing? What is your deepest desire that your writing sates?
3827581 Writing boils down to one word for me: exploration.
I'm dedicated to the exploration of ideas, practices and procedures in many forms. As a trained mathematician I'm very procedural in the manner of which I engage in that exploration. Personally, I can't imagine a point where I'd give it up, but I can see that there may come a time when the work is too much for the reward, and I may at that point simply loose interest.
What drives me to write, or at least, to write fan-fiction is to explore ideas that are not frequently explored or are otherwise under-represented. This is why almost everything I write comes out Dark Tragedy—given the so obvious contrast to the happy-go-lucky place that is Equestria (using the setting as a foil).
What, do tell, motivates you?
3827609 It started as exploration for me, also. The mere idea of researching magic through storytelling intrigued me. I've been writing a novel about it for 3 years now. The early rush of freshness all but dissipated.
One thing still remains. If I were forced to show something permanent I've created in my life, I'd be at a loss. The stories I wrote would be my best approximation. A note that I've been here. A testimony that I've been at all.
I've surrounded myself with things to do to distract me. However, I'm not sure I should be doing any of them. When I was still at school, I knew exactly what was expected of me. Now that the struggle is over, I'm left wondering what it is I should be doing.
I kind of feel like a wild animal that was left out into the wilderness after lifelong captivity. They expect me to just run out into the jungle and do my thing. But I don’t know what my thing is, so I just sit there at the gate that has closed behind me.
I might still be a blank flank, is what I’m saying.
All the things I have in my life are more or less just distractions. If I am to ever discover my destiny, it will probably be through my writing. Perhaps, it will be writing itself that captivates me.
TL;DR: Writing is kind of the only thing I have.