Hi, I'm Guilherme Orbe and what do you really need to worry about when reviewing? First, the essential thing is spelling correction. You should be concerned with punctuation, accentuation, the correct spelling of words.
Everything grammar teaches us is to maintain a standard that all people can easily understand , and that's what it's for, but that's not all when it comes to reviewing a literary text. One of the best professors I had in college once told me that writing is the art of getting rid of excesses. Even if the information is not repeated, if it is possible to write in fewer words , keeping the meaning, the better.
In the book About Writing, which I highly recommend reading, there is a part that I consider the best , which is when Stephen King shows the process of revising one of his texts. In the book he puts the raw version and then the markup with the changes. Here I will put only the version with the changes.
Let's analyze and seek to understand the reason for these changes. So I believe that the reasoning that is important to have at the time of review will become clearer . And we will also use the author's own observations as a basis to justify his modifications and learn from them.
And I will add some personal observations. First we can observe the title change. In the book he says that the previous title was even provisional.
He knew that during the writing a better one would emerge. And the reason he chose this title “1408” is that they add up to 13, which is not a floor that is often used in old buildings. And as for titles, I can add that the first idea is not always the best and sometimes it can take a long time to come up with a good one.
So there's no need to rush, over the course of history a very good one can emerge. So don't get too attached to the first idea. In mark 2 we have the change of the name of one of the characters.
He justifies that it would be too long and that just replacing the name made him reduce the entire book by 15 lines. Big names can be difficult to pronounce and to record, so keep a big name only if you really have to and the name is really good. In mark 3 he reports that he was thinking too much for the reader.
And this is important to highlight. Readers like to come to their own conclusions. Don't take it away from him.
A lot of the unnecessary information I referred to earlier is connected to this. Sometimes we try to explain too much, thinking that the reader will not understand the intention behind a character's speech, or his action. Let the reader draw their own conclusions.
At mark 4 he defines as much stage direction. A lot of unnecessary targeting. Let's try to understand this.
Note that the changes do not change the meaning. It sums up the idea in a more practical and interesting way. As I said before, if you can speak in few words, don't use too many.
Please be aware of this when reviewing. If you find that in some parts you are over-clarifying an action, using too many words to describe something that isn't even that important, using long terms, using sentences to describe something that could use a single word or phrase, you can cut it out. Just be careful not to over-cut.
Just cut out the exaggeration. If you don't have a better way to describe it in fewer words, keep it the way it is. Only cut if you have a better option.
At mark 5 he says something important and I've already commented on some videos here. It's anticipation. He comments that the lucky Hawaiian shirt is important at the end of the story and would originally only appear later in the story.
In the review, he thought it best to include it before because it is something very important. And indeed, important elements need to be introduced as early as possible. And here I add a note that even if you're not the type to plan everything in the story before you start writing, the review is exactly to help you with that.
Will revisit the beginning and add elements that should appear before or at least be commented on. At mark 6 he says he cut the obvious. Needless to say, the character sat in one of the chairs.
He wouldn't sit on the dog in front of the table. Unnecessary information. Cut out the obvious whenever you notice it.
Banal information is easily understood by the context without having to say that it happened. Marking 7 is fast. He comments that he cut the adverb “soon”.
And if you read the sentence with and without it you'll see why. The “I” was also cut. It is not necessary.
The “had” already suggests that it was him. To understand mark 8 would need other information that he talks about throughout the book, basically he recommends avoiding using words that end with “mind” like “quickly”, “desperately” and so on. It says it impoverishes the text.
He explains it in more detail in the book. And here he decided not to cut the “ironically” because for him it suggests that Mike is making fun of the other character, but not much and that's what he wants to convey at this moment. So don't get hung up on the things I'm talking about here.
Just know what you're doing and why you're doing it. And we have the tag 9. Here again it says that it has cut out the obvious and also repeats the information.
Basically if you read a part of the text and realize that without that part the text won't lose meaning or any important information, it means that probably that part can be cut. This book On Writing is by far the most recommended book for writers. It has very useful information and he is very direct.
But in the first half of the book he talks about how he got to where he is, his journey to becoming a writer. But in the second half the content is very good. This part that I talked about in this video I really consider the best part of the book, but there are other very good ones too.
If you want to buy, I will leave my amazon affiliate link in the description and in the pinned comment and by buying through it you help the channel without paying anything more for it and I will be very happy. And I remember that when I wrote my first book, the coordinator of the letters course revised my book for free and spent more than an hour explaining the changes, it was a real class on writing. I thought I'd add it here for analysis, but the reasoning is the same.
I'm speaking to reinforce that the things that Stephan King says in his book and the things that I commented on adding can be applied to any kind of book. And obviously you need to worry about the grammatical part, it's a mandatory question. And if you don't master this part, it's important to look for someone who does.
If you can't hire a professional proofreader, ask someone you trust who is studious to read your book, it will probably help you adjust some details, but the ideal is to hire a professional. And you have the option to use online reviewers. There are some very good ones like the language tool, or even the word corrector.
And there are others. But these tools won't do it all. A professional review will always be necessary if you want a professional result.
Not to mention that these tools will only correct spelling errors. Everything mentioned here in the video regarding the meaning, repetitions of information or adjustments in general need to be made first by the author. If your doubts are about whether the story is engaging, it's conveying emotion, those more subjective things.
There are already several videos here on the channel talking about how to do this and I will post many others on the subject. Because it's subjective and broad, it's something you can't cover in just one video. And knowing how to do it, you will know how to identify.
Another way to understand this is when writing. If you felt something during writing, an emotion, excitement, the reader will probably feel it too when reading. It is not possible to say yes, but it indicates that it is on a good path.
And don't worry if you have trouble doing that. It's basically training. Your first book is probably not going to be your best book.
By the end of the book you will be writing much better than when you started. Evolution is often really slow, you just need to keep reading and writing a lot. There's no magic to solve this.
It's practice and a little patience. So try not to charge yourself too much. And leave it for review at the end.
Write the first version without worrying about these details. Focus on story development. Because writing and proofreading together will slow down your writing and it can be difficult to continue.
So at first just write the whole book, then review it calmly for as long as necessary. If your difficulty is in writing, in the development of the story, in the planning and creation of characters, there are other videos here on the channel that discuss this better and many others will come as well. Comment what you think of the video and let me know if you have any more specific questions about proofreading.
I should probably make another video on the subject later on and your opinion will help to know what you really need. And subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the next videos about writing. To the next!
