In mentoring writers, I’m often asked this about editing: ‘Do I really need to hire a professional editor?’ When you are busy writing your first draft, you can definitely edit your own work. An editor is usually brought in only when you have a complete manuscript in hand. Whether you’re at an early stage of writing your novel or you can’t afford to hire an editor at present, you can learn to edit your own work. To start with, follow these 5 easy steps:
Take a break
It may seem strange that the first piece of advice for writing your novel essentially amounts to ‘don’t do anything,’ but this break in between the time that you finish your novel and the time that you return to it for editing is essential for several reasons.
One reason is that in the time that you are away from your novel, your unconscious will still be working on it. You will be surprised at the types of connections that you’ll make on returning to the work that weren’t there for you while you were away from it. If you are a writer who edits as you go, taking small breaks between finishing sections like this can also help and may give fresh story ideas a little time to grow.
Another reason to take a break is that you need the distance from the work. In a way, you need to forget about the book. On returning to it, you might be surprised to find passages that you don’t remember writing; passages that affect you emotionally as though someone else were the author.
To revise effectively this distance is necessary. When you are too close to a work, you tend to mentally compensate for its weaknesses. This can include major elements such as plot holes that completely pass you by because you have a mental construct of the novel that fills in those holes. These issues can be smaller too, such as sentences that you have reread so many times you are no longer capable of proofreading them accurately.
Assessing your book realistically is easier after a break as well. While in the process of writing it, you probably experienced times when you thought you were writing an extraordinary novel as well as times of great self-doubt. A break will make it easier to approach your work with slightly detached insight.
Try not to think about your novel very much during your break. If something does occur to you, make a note to come back to when you start your revision, but try not to dwell on it. Be sure that you have a set a date to return to your book no more than a few weeks after finishing it.
Get organised
When you sit down to do your revision, you must first get organised both physically and mentally. Physically, prepare your workspace by doing things such as placing your writing reference resources near your work space so you can refer to them any time.
Make a schedule for your revision just as you did for writing your novel. Set a goal and stick to it. Think about what other tools might help you with your revision. You’ll need some kind of system to take notes and keep track of things. The system that works best for you depends on you. You might choose to use multicoloured index cards or sticky notes, spreadsheets, a notebook with sections and multicoloured pens, or a physical filing drawer, for example.
Whatever planning you did prior to writing your novel, when you revise you will need to track things such as structure, characters, scenes and plot points to ensure that they all fit together. During your revision, you’ll need to do things like examine each scene to ensure that it moves your novel forward and does what it sets out to do. Learning how to write a book is a rigorous exercise in focus and discipline. Your system can be as formal or informal as you like. For example, you might decide to slap a green sticky note on or highlight every section where the story’s pace seems slow to you. The most important thing is that any editing system you use is intuitive for you and helps rather than hinders you.
Develop a plan
You should make yourself a checklist for dealing with all the large and small issues you want to examine over the course of your novel. Some of your points will be genre-specific. For example, if you are writing a romance novel, one thread you should look at is the progression of the love story. If you are writing a crime novel, you will have your work cut out for you as you ensure that your clues are appropriately placed and reveal just enough to the reader. If you are writing science fiction or fantasy, you will need to make sure your worldbuilding is solid.
But elements you’ll need to examine are universal to all types of fiction. Here are some of the questions you may want to ask yourself as you revise:
- Does the book work structurally? If you followed some version of the three-act structure, did you maintain that structure and does it create a satisfying form?
- Does your plot make sense? What about the subplots? Are there any logical errors? Do the subplots work with the plot, or do they distract from it or make the book seem like too much is happening?
- Are your characters well-developed? Do they seem like they could exist as flesh and blood? Do they behave in ways that are plausible for them?
- How is your setting? Is it fully realised? Does it need more or less detail? Is it integral to the story?
- Are there places in the book where the narrative seems to drag? Can you identify why?
- Do you deliver information to your readers in a way that is engaging? Do you tell them enough at the right time and avoid info dumps?
- How is your prose? Are your sentences grammatically correct? Are any of them needlessly confusing?
This is just a start; you will have your own questions you’ll want to consider. Once you’ve made your plan, it’s time to start the actual revision:
Make multiple passes
One thing is overlooked by many beginning writers who ask ‘how do I edit my own writing?’ Editing is seldom a one-step process. First do a read through. Don’t worry too much about analysing or revising your manuscript although you should make note of any structural or language problems that strike you or new ideas that you have along the way.
Next, go through the book more carefully and address the major elements. Use your checklists to look at plot, structure, character, setting and the other major parts of your novel. If you find that you are going to be doing major rewrites, you should work on those rewrites before you do any line editing.
Once you have addressed any major issues, take a look at your prose. It’s now time to read your book out loud. This may seem time-consuming, but nothing compares to reading a piece of fiction out loud for finding clunky phrasings, repetitions and other things that just don’t work that your eyes might pass right over.
You might want to wait until after you have completed step 5 to line-edit your novel and read it out loud. This depends on whether you feel that you still have major structural issues as well as how ‘finished’ you want your novel to feel before others have a look at it. Some writers find more value in submitting a rawer manuscript to other readers while others prefer to polish it as much as possible beforehand even if they end up rewriting big chunks of it.
Get feedback
The final step in your revision is having others read your work. You may already have writing friends or belong to a writing group, or you might want to find a group. You can also use the Now Novel critique section. Some writers find it useful to submit a list of questions to their critiquers or to ask them to focus on specific aspects of the book.
It can also be helpful to find two types of critiquers for your book. Readers who are not writers often notice different things from readers who are writers, and feedback from both can be valuable. The value of having others look over your work is that they will spot mistakes or inconsistencies you might miss because you are so immersed in the text you’ve written.
Editing and revising are not separate from the process of writing. They are just as important as writing drafts, and they help to bring your novel more in line with the vision you have of it. By taking time out after completion of a draft, organising your workspace, making a plan, going over your book multiple times and giving it to others to read, you can sharpen and strengthen your novel.
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