Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never known a writer without a strong opinion on editing. Some people love it, some hate it. I’m hoping these tips might slowly push you to the latter.
Disclaimer: I don’t do a ton of editing. I spend most of my time trying to get my novel ideas to actually work on paper, and haven’t made it to that point yet. However, I have made it there with a few short stories, and while most of the advice probably transfers over, take this with a grain of salt if it doesn’t work for your particular wip.
Without further ado, here are some of my tips on editing your writing!
First, get rid of the idea that editing = trashing your work. Lots of writers are afraid of editing because it’ll make them realize everything they don’t like about their work. In reality, we edit our work to improve it and help it grow, not to criticize our first draft, which is undoubtedly not going to be the best work we’ve ever produced.
Whenever possible, always do your first bits of editing on paper. There’s definitely a psychology behind scribbling all over your manuscript and how it helps you make more thorough edits. If you don’t have access to a printer, try an annotation app on a computer or tablet.
Before an editing session, make a list of the things you want to accomplish in that session. “Add more physical description”, “enhance the relationship between chars. A and B”, and “break down chapter 4” are all examples of notes I wrote to myself while editing this year. That way, you’ll know what to keep an eye out for while rereading.
Split it up! Especially if you’re writing a longer work, editing can be really intimidating. Go chapter by chapter, or give yourself ten pages at a time. It’ll feel a lot more manageable.
Along with that, take your time. Depending on how thorough you are, this can be a painstaking process. This is why books take so long to come out! It’s supposed to take a long time, so don’t stress about getting it done quickly.
Do multiple sessions. Don’t expect to edit your work once and have it ready for print; you’ll need to go through it quite a bit. This is normal! Some authors have revised their books 50 times. You probably won’t need that many times, but don’t be surprised if this takes longer than it took you to write your first draft.
GET A BETA. This is probably the best advice I can give you. A beta will give you a fresh set of eyes, as well as a person to bounce questions off of (see my suggestions here). Your beta reader can be a writer friend, a non-writer friend (more opinions here), someone you meet in an online writing community… as long as they know what they’re in for (and you’re willing to compensate them for their work!), anyone will do.
Break it up. Editing is exhausting sometimes. Have another writing project going that you can work on in between sessions to prevent burnout.
Retype. This is controversial, and believe me, it is a PAIN IN THE ASS. But it’s also one of the most useful editing techniques I’ve encountered. Pull up your manuscript and a blank document side-by-side, and retype it. You’ll find yourself correcting typos, adding and removing details, and editing without really realizing it. I don’t know if I would recommend this for novels unless you really wanna put yourself through that, but I would absolutely recommend for flash fiction, short stories, and individual scenes and chapters that are really giving you a hard time.
Show some love! To keep your morale up, try editing as if you were editing a friend or classmate’s work. Instead of scribbling out that really frustrating paragraph and writing “THIS SUCKS”, mark it with a “having trouble understanding this part”. Instead of just pointing out everything that’s not working, also note where it is! Highlight your favorite snippets, characters, dialogue, etc. Yeah, you have a lot of work ahead of you, but look at all the great work you’ve already done!
Happy editing! (And please send me more questions about writing!!)
