I’m not going to swear that my method for editing will work for you, but it has served me well over the years.
As a kid, I always thought of editing as “tidying up” whatever words I already had on the page. I’m not sure when I realized that editing wasn’t just about cleaning up the words, but making sure they were the best words. And if they weren’t, cutting them. Putting in new words.
And at some point, I realized editing a novel wasn’t the same as editing a 5-paragraph essay. That editing a book wasn’t just smoothing out words, but also ideas like plot, character, and theme.
Edits can feel overwhelming even if you’ve done it before. I hope sharing my process helps make editing feel more doable.
After taking my six weeks away from the manuscript (hopefully), the first thing I do is read the book on my Kindle with a notebook next to me. I like reading on my Kindle because I can’t make changes in the manuscript. Also because I do a lot of pleasure reading on my Kindle, so being on there puts me in a different head space than reading on my computer.
In my notebook, I keep a running list of a couple things:
What needs fixed: This could be big things like, “My villain doesn’t enter the story until after the halfway point.” Or, “The first scene of chapter seven goes nowhere and needs a point.” My notes might also be little things, “I have two characters named Jack.” If it needs fixing, it goes on the list.
What needs researched: Especially now that I mostly write historical fiction, this is a big list.
What I want to ponder: This is where I put questions like, “Could I delete one of her friends?” Or, “This sentence struck me as I read. Would this be a better theme?” These are things that I maybe want to change, but I want to think on them more.
You might have other details you find you want to track. If you write fantasy or sci-fi, it could be beneficial to keep a list of world-building issues that you identify.
After I’ve built my lists, I get to make another list (I love lists!) from all the data I’ve collected. This becomes my “Editing To-Do list” and I organize it from “Highest impact” to “Lowest impact.”
Usually my lists are quite long, but for the sake of an example, say I’m creating my Editing To-Do list from these items:
Needs fixed:
- Dialogue at family dinner in chapter one
- In chapter 4, I foreshadow that the cousin is going to come visit and then it never happens
- Main character’s best friend needs more depth.
To research:
- What kind of food was served in schools in this era?
- How did police investigations work?
- What was involved in making a phone call to a different city?
What I want to ponder:
- Do I lose anything if I cut the main character’s quiet friend?
- In several places, my main character considers her future. Are her expectations consistent with what girls would’ve thought in this era?
Looking at those lists, here are the “high-impact” items from all three: Cousin visiting, police investigations, cutting the quiet friend
Here are medium-impact items: Adding depth to best friend, main character considering her future.
Here are the lower-impact items: Dialogue at family dinner, phone call to another city, food served in schools
“Story impact” is a subjective term. For example, if the best friend is a major character, adding depth to her might mean that you’re making tweaks to 50% of the pages of your manuscript. But the changes likely won’t have ripple effects that impact the plot or other characters. So, I would personally rank “cousin visiting” over “adding depth to best friend” only because I’ll need to add multiple scenes, plus make sure the rest of the book reflects the cousin having visited.
Anything that impacts just one scene or helps you fill out a few more details goes under lower impact.
You also might decide that you want to answer any questions you’re pondering and take care of all research before you do anything else. That can work too! Finding the system that works best for you is the key, not duplicating my system perfectly.
Once I have my Editing To-Do list compiled and arranged, then I start from the high impact items and work my way down.
Why edit this way? Why not edit chronologically?
The reason I don’t like editing chronologically is it hurts my brain.
Because if my plan is to start in chapter one and make all necessary changes until I reach the end of my book, that’s an awful lot to try and hold in my head. I have to remember those big plot changes I’m going to make in the future, the character I need to deepen, the character I need to cut, the new theme I’m working in, and so forth. And that’s on top of whatever issues this specific scene has that I need to fix. Chronological editing just doesn’t work for me at this early point in edits.
Next week, I’ll talk more about the “macro edit.”
If you have questions, I’m happy to answer them!
Here’s another post you might find helpful: Editing for the first time? 5 thoughts to help you make sense of it.
Thank you so much for writing these posts on the macro edit, Stephanie! I’m approaching the end of my first draft in a book, and I know that my macro edit is coming up soon. On the last book that I was working on, the macro edit seemed way to overwhelming. Your way of editing that you described in this post seems like a really great way to work through my edits.
Do you have any specific ways that you edit the character development? As in, making sure that it is clear what the growth in the main character is? Thanks!
That’s a really great question, Adi. I think it needs its own post, so I’ll work on that for the next couple weeks!
I’d love to see that post!
I’m on it, Xoe!
I like the idea of rating high impact -low impact, it sounds very efficient.
I don’t have a system for editing bc I don’t understand it yet. I know that it’s more than smoothing out, but I don’t necessary know how to find plots holes, research details etc.
I’m obviously going to have to find a way to learn but may need to spend time right now learning the basics of the craft.
Tonya, not sure this is super comforting, but I had edited several books before I stumbled on the idea of editing in that manner. I honestly don’t remember where I first learned about editing in that way, but it made a big difference! Like many things with writing, the only way you get better at editing is by actually editing. Having some knowledge and strategy ahead of time can help, but it doesn’t replace the actual doing part.
This sounds like an excellent way to stay organized!
It’s worked for me, anyway!
Thanks so much for this post Stephanie! In adulthood I hope to have a career in editing, and at this point I’m nearing beginning a freelancing service of my own. Editing tips like this are very helpful 🙂 I’m my friend’s editor at the moment, so maybe I’ll show her this post and we can try working through her second draft using your method!
Oh, good! I hope it’s helpful as you guys work together on the book!
This post is so helpful, as I’m doing my edits now. This entire series has been helpful, actually, so thanks for doing them. How long does the macro edits usually take you to finish before you feel satisfied with them?
That’s a good question, Riya. Because my first drafts tend to be a bit sparse, the editing process overall takes me about as long as writing the first draft. But that’s not true for all writers and really varies depending on where you are in your journey, and how comprehensive your first drafts are. That’s not much of an answer, is it? 🙂
I definitely want to try the high-impact to low-impact way. And the lists, that would help. I tried to edit my manuscript chronologically and had to set it aside. I think noting high-impact things and starting there will help me to focus on world building and character issues before how to word a single sentence in chapter two.
Loving the series! It’s definitely helped me look at my novel in a different light to help me fix it and write my current one!
Xoe, your comment totally made my day 🙂 This series has been really fun for me too.
I get overwhelmed very easily with chronological editing. Like you pointed out, it’s just too hard to fix big issues alongside single sentence issues.
The biggest struggle with high-impact-to-low-impact is that you end up with a bit of a Frankenstein manuscript for a bit. I don’t love that, but I’ve learned to accept the chaos because I know eventually I get it fixed. That part is tough, though!
This post makes me so excited to start editing haha. I also make a list of all the things I need to work on, but it’s a little more uncategorized and messy. Organizing by impact sounds like a good idea and I can’t wait to try it out!
Let me know how it goes for you, Alana!