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As a writer, I try my best to avoid using clichés and worn out turns of phrase such as ‘lost in translation’. However, working as an English Language Editor in Saudi Arabia has opened up a wealth of new meaning for the phrase that using it as a title for this piece is not clichéd but perfect.

Editing text can be challenging at the best of times, especially text for a specific field such as engineering, medicine or education, all of which I deal with regularly. However, when that text was originally written in a different language and then fed through a computer before it lands on your desk you’re faced with an entirely different challenge. Meaning can truly be lost between the author, the translator and the editor. For example, one of the more interesting mix-ups I have come across is suggesting a doctor step in and help if your infertile husband cannot get you pregnant…

Many freelance jobs for editors are translated texts, and many freelance editors looking for work will choose to skip over them. Anyone who knows the job will tell you that it is a minefield that is best left alone unless you really know what you’re getting into. However, I believe that with a few tips and pointers to set you on the right course you could open up a whole new income stream. Following these steps should help you make a success of editing translated text from any language:

Start with the basics

As with writing, you should start with what you know. By correcting the spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors first you will not only ease yourself into the document and familiarize yourself with the text, you will also begin to notice the obvious confusions of meaning.

Never assume!

Take my previous example, it would seem a safe bet to assume that the author of the text did not mean for the doctor to call around while the husband was out with a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates to set the mood! However, while you may think that the author meant to tell patients to visit their doctor for medical solutions to infertility you should not just change the text. Leave a comment or suggestion, or better still contact your client and ask what was meant.

Don’t be afraid to ask

Chances are your client is the one who translated the text, meaning they read both the native language of the author and English. If you are unsure about something, then they are the person to ask. They will have access to both the original and the English version of the document, and talking to them will clear up any misunderstandings. Being in constant contact also helps break down the barrier that working via the Internet can often create, which will lead to a better finished piece at the end and may also open up the possibility of future work.

Double-check everything

In some languages, such as Arabic, there aren’t words for certain technologies or medicines. Instead of simply naming a new machine or procedure it will be described. A good translator will at least make a stab at what the machine or procedure in question is, however, that does not mean that the name or the spelling is correct. Having a good dictionary, specific to the field the text is aimed at, is a must. For example, I frequently make use of TheFreeDictionary.com’s medical dictionary for any medical text I edit.

Once you have ferreted out what you believe to be the right name, phrase or term and inserted it into the text you MUST make a comment, or contact and inform your client that you have done so. Remember, you are an editor; not a doctor, engineer or expert in metaphysics! Besides, there is a very good chance that during the course of translation meanings were lost again, leading you to the wrong conclusion.

A full copy edit is a must

When you think you’re finished, even if you have been through the text one hundred and fifty four times always, always perform a final full copy edit before you send it to your client. When providing your client with time frames for completion add an extra day. Even if it can be done in two days, tell them three.

Here’s why: you need to sit back and read something else before a final edit. By moving away from the project you ensure a more thorough final read, rather than simply skimming because you’re sick of reading the same thing over and over and over again. It will be the little things like confused spellings such as weather when it should be whether, or a comma where there should be a semicolon. Read each word slowly, and out loud, to make sure you miss nothing.

DON’T PANIC!

So you’ve read this post, done some more research and won a bid for a translated text. Then it arrives and you read it. Suddenly you feel that you would be able to make more sense of Lewis Carroll’s The Jabberwocky than you could of the document on the screen. This is normal. Every day I get sent a booklet that I am utterly convinced was translated into Swedish instead of English. Words are back to front, grammar is non-existent, there are absolutely no full stops, and only 1.5 words out of 10 are spelled correctly.

Step away from your computer, make a cup of ~insert favorite beverage here~ and take a few steadying breaths. You CAN do this. Start with step one of step one, spelling. Then tackle the lack of proper punctuation, and before you know it the grammar is starting to take care of itself. Work one paragraph at a time this way and you’ll be finished before you know it.

Good Luck!

Has anyone had any difficult experiences editing translated texts? How did you manage? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Images courtesy of ippbooks.com and abc.net.au

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Troubleshoot your first draft in one pass

Your first draft is probably a bit rough and chaotic, right? You know there are lots of things you need to fix. Where do you start?

The obvious way might seem to be to start at the beginning and feel your way. But I find if I do that, I don’t really have control. I might sort out the flow and the language, but I’m still not tackling the structure, or knowing if the pace is varied enough (or if it varies too much), if the crescendos build and are in the right places or if some of my threads disappear. Indeed, some characters may fade off into the background and never return to complete their stories! Or other story threads may prove to be irrelevant and should be saved for another book.
But there’s a smarter way to manage it all at once. And get much more out of the story. I call it –

the beat sheet.

The beat sheet is a document that assesses the entire manuscript in as summarised a form as possible. Hollywood scriptwriters do something similar with screenplays. Not only does the beat sheet allow you to assess your draft at a glance, it can be used as a mission statement for your revisions.

I’ve used it for short novellas and big, sprawling literary epics. It makes the most daunting revision job a piece of cake, no matter how long or complex the book is. And it’s even quite fun to do.

You write a short summary of each scene, assessing its purpose in the story. You use coloured pens for each story thread or group of characters, emoticons as shorthand for the mood of a scene, leave a column down the side so that you can work out the timeline with pinpoint accuracy. You use another colour to draw in where you’re going to swap scenes around, add new ones in, or adjust the content.

Preparing this document might take you a day or two, and the result might look like childish scribble. But I promise you, it’s a seriously useful piece of work.

You can make all sorts of creative decisions with the beat sheet. For instance, the emoticons might indicate you’ve got too much tension building – so you might rework the order of scenes to give the reader a breather. Or you might rewrite one of the tense scenes to make it lighter. You might feel the narrative has got bogged down in a repetitive loop – and looking at the beat sheet will show you where you can trim the flab.

You can use it to assess character development too – as you will see from the emoticons and your summary of the scenes if your people are being put under more pressure and changing the way they behave.

Another great thing about the beat sheet is it also puts me in a positive frame of mind about my first draft. Any problems I come across, I put on the beat sheet and figure out what to do about them. Quite often, it will be clear whether I need to reorder, delete – or maybe expand.

Once I’ve played with the story on the beat sheet, I’m confident it will work on a structural level. Then I can dive in and edit with purpose and pleasure. I know where I’m going and I’ve got all the information I need to bring the best out of the story.

That’s basically it in a nutshell, but you can find more detail at The Beat Sheet – Your at-a-glance revision blueprint.

Roz Morris has nearly a dozen novels in print. She critiques for a leading London literary consultancy and blogs at www.nailyournovel.com Inspiration and Creative Provocation For Writers and is on Twitter at @dirtywhitecandy. The beat sheet is one of the tools in her book Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence http://www.dirtywhitecandy.com/archives/202 available in paperback £5.99 or as a FREE downloadable ebook www.nailyournovel.com

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Whatever type of writer you are, there are steadfast self-editing rules. Myself, being an fiction writer (mostly—at least that’s how I fancy myself), I know the basic checklist of rules: use your thesaurus and dictionary, read your work aloud, use the active voice, watch your sentence rhythm, use the spell/grammar check, and on and on… Then there’s the find/replace tool to help with repetition. Make sure you don’t start sentences with the same words. Blah blah blah. We know the rules. And we should obey most of them—they do help. A lot. But they still get on my nerves sometimes. (I don’t like authority so much.)

Well, recently I received some professional edits back on my novel and I realized there are rules that stand out more than others. Ones that aren’t always as obvious, aren’t talked about as much, yet make a huge difference in your work. I revised fifteen pages of my book, and the following maxims are the ones I found the most useful.

Adverbs

I’m not one who believes all adverbs are bad. I like a little extra description. I don’t shy away from purple all together. But, I did learn that there is a time and place for adverbs. Now I know when they really, truly should not be used. Don’t use them when a stronger word can be used. Period. Don’t be weak and say “walked quickly.” Say “hurried” instead. And rather than “walked purposefully,” use “strode.”
But, I do have a line about a shadowed fountain. The line originally told of a dimly lit fountain. Here, an adverb works. But dimly lit doesn’t even hold a candle (not even a flickering, dimly lit one) to shadowed. Especially when given the context. Shadowed is a much better word for the story, trust me. But fountain by itself—that just doesn’t work. So yeah, watch your adverbs, but I don’t think it’s necessary to drown or kill all your darlings. Just keep them in check.

Non-Events

If something doesn’t happen in your story, why tell of it? Here’s an example — Option A:  ”Sophia* didn’t even acknowledge Jonathan with a glance backward as he grumbled about her being late again” vs. Option B:  ”Sophia ignored his grumblings about her being late again.”

It made perfect sense (to me, at least) to use Option A, but once someone pointed out that telling the reader about something that didn’t happen was, well, pointless, I quickly agreed. (And yes, I would cut quickly out of narrative, most likely, but I kept it here because, well, I can. The realization was quick!) But really, why describe something that doesn’t happen? Keep it simple.
Which leads to the next thing I learned should not be used…

Without

Try doing without without. It’s a useless word. I had a line that started, “Without thinking, she stopped and called out.” Well, if she didn’t think, why say it? The sentence is now, simply, “She stopped and called out.” Tells the reader the exact same thing without bogging anything down. Watch for things that you, as a writer, may be thinking of as possibilities yet you don’t enter them into your story as action. If the ideas or actions do nothing but cross your mind, don’t bother the reader with anything about those non-actions. Keep them off the page. In every possible way, even as a character’s thought, or lack of thought.

Overwriting/Leaving Things Out

All right, so I just told you to leave out things that don’t happen, but it’s also important to make sure that you’re not picturing things in your head that do happen yet you don’t include them because it seems so obvious to you. You should describe every bit of the action so a reader can become immersed. So the reader can feel like it’s happening to him/her. Or that s/he is at least watching it.
I have a part where there are two people in a car already and two more join them. But only the three are mentioned. So when the fourth popped his head into the action, it jarred the reader. I added a simple sentence, “Marjorie tilted her head in a way to let Sophia know it wasn’t just the three of them in the car.” (It wasn’t somebody Marjorie and Sophia really wanted around.)
After I edited that bit, I realized it was overwritten. So then I changed it to, “Marjorie tilted her head in a way to let Sophia know the three weren’t alone in the car.” Those extra couple words told the reader nothing more than the most recent version does, and those words add up to slow down the narrative.
Same with this part about Sophia walking into a building. What’s important about the scene is the dialogue and the feelings between the two characters. Not that “Sophia pushed the door handle with her elbow.” Who cares about that?
Don’t overwrite, yet don’t leave out things that are important. It’s a tricky balance, but it’s important, so pay attention!

Telling

Yes, I know. I know. This one is well-known and obvious. But I had to throw it in here… I couldn’t bring myself to stop at just four rules. And as many times as you hear it, are lectured about it, are told how to show and not tell, it’s still something that should always be in the front of your mind while writing. Because, again, readers want to feel they are a part of the story. They don’t want simply to read of it as though it’s a in a history textbook (unless, of course, you are a textbook writer—if that’s the case, feel free to ignore me!).
I know you all know this one, but I’ll give a quick example anyway. Because it’s that important.
In one part, I had written the sentence, “Donovan gave her a condescending look.” Really? Wow. That’s exciting. How did he do that? Well, this is how — “Donovan looked down at her and cocked his head.” Yeah, doesn’t seem like a phenomenal change, but with the rest of the paragraph, it’s more than obvious to the reader what he’s doing, and now we know more of how Sophia feels. We (yes, I read my own stuff, how else can I edit?) are more in tune with what she’s going through at the moment due to Donovan’s actions.

— All right, I do believe I’m done preaching. Well, almost. There’s one last thing that ties back into the first. Mark Twain once said something about the word very. It’s a given not to use it. But he suggested that you replace it with a certain curse word (no, not that one!) and you’ll realize how ridiculous it is. Hmmm, now I have to go back and edit this. I hope I didn’t put a very in here somewhere. But if I did, you won’t know because I’ll follow my Mr. Twain’s (Clemens’ — whoever’s) advice and delete it. Very is bad. Very bad.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

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There’s a famous quote often attributed to Mark Twain that goes, “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter.”

That stands alone as the best way to make your writing better.

Cut. Cut. Cut.

Editing your own writing can prove difficult, but the task becomes less intimidating once you employ a strategy.

Back Away

When we write, we often pour ourselves into our work, spending hours and hours refining our masterpieces. How then do we edit down the words that matter so much to us?

Back away.

Seriously, no matter what you’re writing and what your deadline may be, try to take a break from it before diving into your editing process. That break should help you determine what’s worth keeping and what you should ditch.

Even if it’s only 15 minutes, that time away to refresh could make the difference between good writing and great writing.

Would Mom Read This?

After you’ve taken a breather from your work, come back to it and ask yourself a question. And be honest with the answer.

Would my mother want to read this?

Chances are that your mom may be the average reader, so her perceived opinion and impression of your piece could help guide what shines in your piece and what lacks luster. And remember, your mom doesn’t have to be your ideal reader.

Select someone you respect who has selective tastes for what they read. Once you read your writing with your “mom” filter on, you’ll know what other clunky words, sentences and passages need to disappear.

What Matters to You the Most?

Next, you face the most difficult part of this process. Find the sentence, paragraph or quote that matters to you the most and cut it.

I bet you’re cringing right now, but trust me – it works.

More often than not, the words that matter to us most have the tiniest impact on the final product we’re reaching for. Keep that in mind as you reread your piece.

I’m not saying you should lose the lead you crafted ever so carefully or ditch that dialogue that makes your characters real, but you should question every single word. I’ll bet there’s a passage or two that you just love.

You love it because you wrote it – not because it’s good or that it adds to the writing. That’s what you need to lose the most.

Real Editing is Ruthless

Editing your own work is near impossible, but if you use these steps, it’ll become easier. You’ll find yourself churning out shorter and shorter pieces, and you’ll discover that you and your readers will be more engaged with what you’re writing.

Quote me on that.

And hey, don’t forget to share your editing tips below. Let’s help each other out!

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I began writing my first full-length novel about a half a year ago and during that time I’ve realized a few key things. Things I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for the mistakes I made.

Lesson #1: Always date-save. Always.

And not just in one place, no. Save on your hard drive, your memory stick, your SD card, the little memory thingy that came with your netbook that you have no clue what it is or where else to use it—save everywhere. Also, email your document to yourself. This may seem like overkill but trust me, if you make the following mistake—lesson two (which you won’t since you’re reading this), you’ll be kissing every piece of hardware that has your work saved on it.

Lesson #2: Sit on all comments/feedback before making changes.

At least for a day. Everyone is going to have their two (or fifty) cents to put in and, I’m sorry, but not everyone can be right. Which leads to a lesson within a lesson—write for yourself. Don’t picture a target audience and don’t force anything. Write what your characters, or you, want to write. I changed the entire first five-thousand (yes!) words of my novel because of what others told me I should write. Big mistake. Huge. It’s taken months to get everything back to how it should be. To quote a writer friend, “If I please everyone, then I have no book.”

Lesson #3: Give your reader credit, and lots of it.

Do not over-explain. If you’ve already shown something, please don’t tell. Don’t write, “Shawna was so upset, all she could blubber out through her tears was….” Write, “All Shawna could blubber out through her tears was….” It’s tighter, yet says the exact same thing. Over the course of a novel or story, those extra words add up and slow down the pace . I see it too often. The writer doesn’t feel confident in his/her own writing and in turn, doubts that the reader will understand what’s being written. This develops into paragraphs of unnecessary explaining. It’s truly a vicious circle. End it by imagining your reader is Albert Einstein—he understands everything! (I know, I know, don’t picture a reader….) But you get my point.

Lesson #4: Research what ‘passive’ truly means.

I’ve come to understand lately that all of the passive words I deleted from my MS weren’t necessarily wrong. First of all, a gerund is a writer’s friend. It’s a great way to vary your sentence structure. “Running late, John quickly grabbed his keys and shot out the door.” This sentence is completely active, yet it has a dreaded -ing word in it. Oh, no—gasp! Don’t worry, it’s all right. Another thing about passivity is that sometimes you don’t want a completed action to have happened. If “Darla was walking down the stairs,” then that’s what she was doing. It’s a continued action, and other things may have occurred during this time frame. She needn’t have “walked down the stairs.” Not always. Research the imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses to understand ‘passivness’ better. By making everything ‘active,’ you might be changing the meaning of your sentence completely. So watch out for that.

Lesson #5: Use the ‘Comments’ feature when stuck.

I spent a good two to three months on a single chapter that I just finished last week. If I had known about (or paid attention to) the fact that Word comes with built in Post-It notes, I would have sped right through that sucker. All the white space that you just can’t seem to fill can be glossed over until you are ready to write that scene. If I had just used the highlighting and comments features, I could have laid out the bare bones of the scene and moved on to the next chapter. Heck, my book could be finished already. Who knows? Don’t waste the time I did. Please.

Lesson #6: Print out a hard copy of your WiP.

At least once a month, if you’re writing a novel—more frequently if you’re working on something shorter. I was blown away by all the tiny mistakes I found and corrections I made when I printed out my work for the first time. It’s not even comparable to editing on-screen. When you have the paper in your hands, it’s in the same form as it will be for your reader. So get into a reader’s mind and print out your stories. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to revise. I know this seems like basic advice, but it makes a huge difference. And there’s really nothing better than taking a pen or pencil and re-writing something. Maybe I’m crazy, but I love it. It makes me feel so accomplished.

So those are the major lessons I’ve learned over the past six months of my writing career. Take it or leave it. No, take it. Mistakes are never fun. Learn from mine and don’t look back.

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As a journalism student way back when, we weren’t allowed to stay in our first ever Newswriting and Reporting class if we couldn’t pull the AP Stylebook out of our bags right then and there. “The bible” as the professor referred to it, was the key to the class, both literally and metaphorically. We quickly learned that he wouldn’t answer any questions unless we first looked it up in the book. We were even quizzed on the contents. It may seem a little fanatical but…well…it kind of has to be.

Throughout my career as a writer, I’ve learned that the AP Stylebook isn’t the only “bible” out there. In fact, there have been times when I was asked to copyedit in a different style, completely opening my eyes to the world outside of the AP Stylebook.

Here are a few others that are worth checking out:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA)

This is the reference book for those people writing papers for both publication in trade journals and those people studying Social and Behavioral Sciences. There are helpful tips for citations and bibliographies as well as many other things that would be useful to all writers in general.

The Chicago Manual of Style

The target audience is still writers and editors of “scholarly journals,” but their latest edition includes helpful information regarding writing for magazines, newsletters, corporate reports, proposals, electronic publications, Web sites and more.

The Elements of Style

A classic and basic writing reference book for all writers that’s an oldie but goodie. This year is the book’s 50^th anniversary. Definitely a golden book to have in your collection in those times of “brain freezes.”

The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation

Just because you just can’t get enough books about using punctuation properly. Some might think it’s painful and some may think they will just never remember when it is the right time to use semi-colons. It’s a must have, even if just for a refresher now and then.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Writers are called writers for a reason. Editors are editors for a reason. Mixing the two tasks can get hairy for some people. If you’re one of those unfortunate souls who regularly mixes tenses and who hangs your participles as if they were laundry on the line, then this is the book for you.

A Short Story Writer’s Companion

This is a good book for those aspiring short story writers out there. It covers the basics such as setting tone, developing characters and polishing up the finished product. The tone is more conversational than other books out there, making it a pleasant and easy read. Pick it up if you’re stuck with things such as plot or dialog.

Do you have any other titles that you just can’t live without?

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In my personal experience as a Marketing Assistant, I had to improve my skills in graphic design, public speaking, project management, planning and negotiation. But when you have to learn something from scratch and you’re not at school anymore, you may end up running into some difficulty.

In those times, whom do you call upon? Google, of course. Google introduced me to all those blogs, guides, tutorials and cheat sheets – any helpful, wonderful and FREE tips. I am grateful for all of those experts-in-their-field sharing their experience and know-how for the sole purpose of contributing to the web community, thus giving a hand to budding professionals like me.

That’s precisely the point. It’s my turn now! Copywriting is what I’m good at (please, don’t contradict me on this point), and I’d love to share some tricks with the non-copywriters out there who need to make up a formal letter, do a PowerPoint presentation or write a product description. Of course you don’t have to become a professional copywriter to do all of these things. I haven’t become a designer just because I watched all of the Photoshop video tutorials available on the Internet. But I did achieve better results thanks to those tutorials, so maybe there’s something I can do to help you write effective, engaging text.

Well, exhaustive enough for an introduction! Let’s start right away with some links you might want to add to your bookmark list:

WordReference

WordReference is my favourite site free translation dictionaries. It might come in handy with idiomatic expressions in foreign language. The Spanish, French and Italian dictionaries and forums are the most popular.

Online Spell Checker

Online Spell Checker is a free and accurate tool for spell-checking in 28 languages.

Advanced Text Analyzer

Get useful statistical information out of your pieces of text such as word/character count, lexical density, readability, word analysis, phrase analysis and graded analysis with Advanced Text Analyzer . It’s free, but it requires registration: Wordcounter is a plug-and-play alternative.

Visuwords

Learn how words associate with Visuwords. This graphical dictionary draws diagrams from the words you look up, highlighting their meanings and the type of relationship with other words and concepts.

Definr

Definr is a nice, suggest-as-you-type English dictionary. You can add it to your Firefox search box for turbo-charging your word search.

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Every writer I know has trouble writing.

~ Joseph Heller

I have several pet peeves when it comes to writing for a living – misspellings, bad grammar, and improper punctuation. Sure, we all succumb to silly mistakes putting pen or pencil to paper or keyboard to screen; that’s the reason we love editors.  But good editors are not always available.

So what should you do then?

You should pick up a copy of the 2009 Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, the gold standard for writing and sated with the “do’s and don’ts” in writing style.   Were you aware that, for example, the proper spelling of the term is “Web site?”  If you weren’t, you are now.

Granted most writers do not like to be corrected.  It makes us feel dumb.  But I’d rather feel dumb than look stupid.   What about you?

Now I don’t expect that every professional writer should know how to spell all the words in the dictionary.  But even my 10-year old nephew knows the difference between “dog” and “dawg.”  He can also spell “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” although I doubt he’ll ever use that word penning his thoughts.

• If you were to ask me to create an inventory of my writing pet peeves, there are five that definitely would make the short list:
• I wince when I see the inept choice of an apostrophe when you mean your, their and its and not you’re, they’re and it’s.
• I sigh when I see the unacceptable use of would of, could of, and should of, when the verb is supposed to be followed by “have.”
• I scream when I see the improper use of the words to and too, affect and effect, beside and besides, lose and loose.
• I cry when I see the unwise use of punctuation: a period, question mark, or exclamation point positioned outside the quotations.
• Further, if you wish to be paid for your writing, you should know the correct word is “remuneration,” which is spelled r-e-m-u-n-e-r-a-t-i-o-n.

I have many more pet peeves. I don’t like the dangle of a participle, the bungling of parallelism, and the clumsy misuse of i.e. v. e.g.  But enough of bad spelling, grammar, and punctuation peeves.  I am also peeved that I have not yet written the great American novel, the Oscar-nominated movie script, the Tony-winning play, or Peabody honors for investigative reporting.

Over the years my writing has become a blancmange of poetry and haiku, short fiction stories, and non-fiction articles combined with an array of PR materials, a few emotional love letters, stand-up comedy routines, a few emotional break-up letters, sales & marketing collateral, spec sitcom and movie scripts, and an illustrated book I co-wrote titled Real Cats Claw Their Way to the Top.  I rationalize my lack of literary feats, continually reminding myself that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Katherine Anne Porter did not publish her best-selling novel in America Ship of Fools until she was 72 years old.

Whew! I still have time for all that,  and an extra few days to devour the new AP Stylebook.

If you find any misssspellings, bad gramma or incorrect puntuation, blame my editor ;-)

What sort of bad writing makes YOU cringe?