Finding Problems

As an editor, one of my favorite tools in my line editing arsenal is my word processor’s “find” feature.

Before you ask, no, it won’t find you money. I tried.

What it will find are words that don’t belong in your document! Want to see all the adverbs? Search for -ly! Have a “very” big problem? It’s an easy search! Concerned that “that” makes too many appearances? That’s nothing to sweat about!

The words you’re looking for pop up in a nice list AND they’re highlighted in the document itself. Perfect for your search and destroy mission!

But that’s not all! 

Rebecca and I often use it to find and correct misused punctuation. If you changed something and want to make sure you didn’t miss a reference, you can search the old term and check! It’s a hell of a lot easier than poring over your manuscript with tired eyes, trying to remember what you’re looking for.

It’s also something a lot of people don’t think about using, hence this lovely blog post!

So put the find feature to work for you! Your writing, your story, and most importantly, your editor, will thank you.