No matter where you are in your editing career you need to know how to edit yourself. For the month of March the Writer Craft Wednesday posts will all be centered on how to edit your own work. Keep in mind that these are guidelines that have worked for me, my crit partners, and my professional editing clients. They can work for you. But, like everything in publishing, you should feel comfortable adapting these to your needs and your style. Editing should be in your comfort zone.
When Do I Start Editing?
This is a very common question with new writers. There’s always a temptation to edit the first chapter until it is beautiful and flawless before moving on to chapter two. I don’t recommend this method. Chapter 1 can’t be properly edited until the last page is written. You’re setting up the entire book and, even if you have an outline, you won’t be able to foresee everything that’s coming in the book when you write the first page.
The First – TINY – Edit:
I like to write my rough drafts away from my main computer. Most of time I use a folding keyboard and send myself scenes by email. When I copy-and-paste the scene into the Word document I do a quick, light edit for typos, hanging sentences, and general clean-up. This kind of tidying edit is a good way to end your writing day. Skim over what you wrote today, fix the obvious errors, and move on.
Actual Edits
I like to start these at around the 70% mark before I even write the last chapter. When I’m about three chapters from the ending I stop, go back, and perform a Rough Draft Edit. This isn’t the full manuscript edit. In my experience stopping for this mid-draft edit saves me from rewriting the ending too much. Those last chapters need to pull all the loose strings together and it’s very hard to do that on a longer manuscript if you haven’t read the full thing yet.
I call this 70% done draft the First Rough Draft and edit this way…
Step 1 – Read the book and make sure the opening pages set up the ending you have planned. If necessary, rewrite or rethink whatever doesn’t fit.
Step 2 – When the first rough draft is complete go look for missing bridges, black spaces, or missing names. If you were stuck on a scene and left [insert fight scene here] now is the time to go fill those brackets in.
Step 3 – Compare names and places so there are no super-similar names. Authors tend to get hooked on names or sounds. If you have sixteen characters whose names start with a K, reconsider. There may be a reason, but if there isn’t now is the time to rename people.
Step 4 – Check that every chapter opening sets the scenes and every chapter ending has a hook that makes readers turn the page.
Step 5 – Now that the stage is set: write the ending! When you’re done you’ll have Draft 2.
Step 6 – Run spellcheck again.
Want to read the whole series on editing now? It’s on Patreon!
