The Many Stages of Editing by Deanna Chase
When a writer finally gets around to typing those last few words of their novel that signifies The End, there’s usually an overwhelming sense of elation. You did it! The late nights, horrific early mornings, and all the time you spent ignoring chores, personal hygiene, spouses, and children were worth it. You finally completed that one-hundred-thousand word masterpiece. Time to bring on the celebratory chocolate and wine. Or in my case a Coach bag. It was my very first one and my best friend made me do it. I swear.
Great. An accomplishment like that deserves something to commemorate it. But then the reality sets in. Time to revise, edit, and revise some more.
If you’re a panster like I am, there’s going to be a lot to clean up. And I do mean a lot. No matter how many times I start with an outline, my manuscripts never, ever resemble my original ideas. It turns out I’m much more creative when I’m in the moment.
A good post-writing outline will help a lot during the initial stage of revisions. About a year ago my fabulous critique partner, Jennifer Spiller, came up with the idea of jotting down a rough outline of each scene after she wrote it. This is brilliant. I used that method during my last WIP and loved it. It really helped me know which sections needed a major overhaul once I started my revisions. It’s also a good idea to keep a journal or file on each of your characters. What they look like, their age, eye color, full name, profession, etc. You don’t want their blue eyes miraculously turning brown unless they have a reason to be using colored contacts.
So once The End is reached, I do my celebratory dance, take a few days or so to bask in my own glory, and then it’s time to get to work.
My editing structure looks like this:
Step one: Major overhaul of all scenes that no longer make sense.
Step two: Read the entire manuscript from beginning to end. Make notes on further revisions.
Step three: Revise each chapter one by one, while also combing for word choice, sentence structure, pacing, world building, etc.
Step Five: Go on a search and destroy mission for all noticeable writing ticks, repetitions, and echoes.
Step Six: Send chapters to beta readers and critique partner.
Step Seven: More revisions based off the wisdom of trusted beta readers and critique partner.
Step Eight: Print out and reread entire manuscript. Check for word choice, sentence structure, awkward phrasing, echoes, punctuation, continuity, etc. This is also a good time to send the manuscript to a text to voice program and listen as you read. You’ll catch things your eye skips over.
Step Nine: Send to editor (if self-publishing).
Step Ten: Revise and edit based on wisdom of trusted editor.
Step Eleven: Reread entire manuscript. As you can see, I read my manuscript from beginning to end quite a few times. It’s the only way I know how to catch all the continuity issues. It also helps if I’m getting stuck or can’t see the big picture. When I’m in doubt, I load it on my Kindle and just read.
Step Twelve: Send to Proofreader.
Step Thirteen: Make changes based on Proofreader’s suggestions.
Step Fourteen: Reread entire manuscript, preferably in a text to voice program. I’m really only looking for oops type errors like dropped or mistyped words. At this stage it should pretty much be done.
Halfway through step Fourteen: Chuck the entire thing because I’m sick to death of it. If I read one more word, I’ll be inspired to kill the main character off in the opening scene of the next book just to get rid of her and move on to something else.
Step Fifteen: Finish rereading manuscript, decide it’s garbage, and hit the delete button.
Step Sixteen: Rescue manuscript from the garbage bin on my computer. Decide to publish or seek publication anyway. But only after I reread it one more time.
Great. An accomplishment like that deserves something to commemorate it. But then the reality sets in. Time to revise, edit, and revise some more.
If you’re a panster like I am, there’s going to be a lot to clean up. And I do mean a lot. No matter how many times I start with an outline, my manuscripts never, ever resemble my original ideas. It turns out I’m much more creative when I’m in the moment.
A good post-writing outline will help a lot during the initial stage of revisions. About a year ago my fabulous critique partner, Jennifer Spiller, came up with the idea of jotting down a rough outline of each scene after she wrote it. This is brilliant. I used that method during my last WIP and loved it. It really helped me know which sections needed a major overhaul once I started my revisions. It’s also a good idea to keep a journal or file on each of your characters. What they look like, their age, eye color, full name, profession, etc. You don’t want their blue eyes miraculously turning brown unless they have a reason to be using colored contacts.
So once The End is reached, I do my celebratory dance, take a few days or so to bask in my own glory, and then it’s time to get to work.
My editing structure looks like this:
Step one: Major overhaul of all scenes that no longer make sense.
Step two: Read the entire manuscript from beginning to end. Make notes on further revisions.
Step three: Revise each chapter one by one, while also combing for word choice, sentence structure, pacing, world building, etc.
Step Five: Go on a search and destroy mission for all noticeable writing ticks, repetitions, and echoes.
Step Six: Send chapters to beta readers and critique partner.
Step Seven: More revisions based off the wisdom of trusted beta readers and critique partner.
Step Eight: Print out and reread entire manuscript. Check for word choice, sentence structure, awkward phrasing, echoes, punctuation, continuity, etc. This is also a good time to send the manuscript to a text to voice program and listen as you read. You’ll catch things your eye skips over.
Step Nine: Send to editor (if self-publishing).
Step Ten: Revise and edit based on wisdom of trusted editor.
Step Eleven: Reread entire manuscript. As you can see, I read my manuscript from beginning to end quite a few times. It’s the only way I know how to catch all the continuity issues. It also helps if I’m getting stuck or can’t see the big picture. When I’m in doubt, I load it on my Kindle and just read.
Step Twelve: Send to Proofreader.
Step Thirteen: Make changes based on Proofreader’s suggestions.
Step Fourteen: Reread entire manuscript, preferably in a text to voice program. I’m really only looking for oops type errors like dropped or mistyped words. At this stage it should pretty much be done.
Halfway through step Fourteen: Chuck the entire thing because I’m sick to death of it. If I read one more word, I’ll be inspired to kill the main character off in the opening scene of the next book just to get rid of her and move on to something else.
Step Fifteen: Finish rereading manuscript, decide it’s garbage, and hit the delete button.
Step Sixteen: Rescue manuscript from the garbage bin on my computer. Decide to publish or seek publication anyway. But only after I reread it one more time.
