#big edits

[dramalocks]

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[writing-with-olive]

Developmental Editing: How to cut things from your story when they have large ripple effects

This is one of the biggest things I’ve been dealing with as I go into my first round of developmental edits. In some cases, there may be something that you think won’t be too hard to take out, but then you find that your characters refer to it all the fricken time, or it had lasting effects that can’t just be explained away without that context. 

Anyway, here are some things I’ve discovered to help take out story elements that just didn’t make the cut, in no particular order. 

Think about why you added The Thing in the first place. Was it a motivator? Something you just thought was cool? Worldbuilding that used to be relevant, but now isn’t? This will give you a starting place on what ripples you might expect. For example, if The Thing is a primary motivator, your characters might not have a reason to progress through the plot. Using this, also think about what aspects of The Thing you can give to parts of your story that did make the cut, and/or what scenes you may have to add to fulfill the purpose. For example, in my story, there was a secret resistance group that had to get cut - which also meant that my main character didn’t have any reason to think anything was amiss, so I made one of her fellow Agents snap, solving this, and emphasizing just how difficult training is.

When thinking about scenes that will have to be added/cut due to this ripple effect, refer to an outline as opposed to your whole manuscript. An outline will give you the overview of the story much more effectively, and the distance helps to make more objective decisions. If you are a pantser, I highly reccomend going through your manuscript and building an outline of what you have. (This is also very useful for gauging plot structure and other issues.)

Go through your manuscript scene by scene and cut all references to The Thing.

If you’re replacing The Thing with something else, do that before editing references to it. This will help in terms of specificity (ie, if a character says a particular line of dialogue, reactions might be different than if they had said a different line, etc). This will also help make sure it’s more integrated into your story.

Make sure that The Thing is the most pressing edit for your story, ie it’s the one that will cause the most ripples. You want to get these out of the way first, as there’s no use dealing with smaller ripples, only to have to overturn or undo that work later. 

Anyway, hopefully this is informative. If you need clarification on any points, let me know!

[writing-with-olive]

Making and using an editing outline*

*I’m using the term editing outline as the outline for your manuscript you are using in order to see what edits need to be made - NOT a timeline for when you are making what edits and stuff.

FIRST - MAKING YOUR OUTLINE

This can be a little tedious, but the first step is to read through your manuscript through front to back. For each scene (NOT CHAPTER), write down a short note/sentence about

what your character’s goal is

what the conflict is

how the scene ends

remember - make sure you’re specific enough that you don’t need the context of other scene descriptions to remember what each means.

Personally, I like to number my scenes so they’re easier to find when I’m referencing that part of my manuscript. The system I usually use is [chapter #].[scene letter] - meaning that if I was numbering the second scene in the fourth chapter, I would number it as 4.B.

This list is going to get pretty long, but it’s worth it.

Also, put in a header where the act breaks are. Because of how you are likely going to be moving things around, chapters may get a little fluid, but acts are going to stay fairly steady.

SECOND - DELETING AND COMBINING

This is useful for making note of what scenes are just not going to be going into the next draft in their current form. If there’s anything that’s completely useless, cross it out or highlight it in a specific color. If there’s two scenes that can be better combined into one because they’re really similar, highlight those in a different color and give them the label of the first scene.

(steps continued under the break)

THIRD - DEVELOPMENTAL BRAINSTORMING

Now that you’ve dipped your toes into the whole “okay we’re actually moving things around and changing stuff” shenanigan, it’s time to really consider your bigger developmental problems and how to fix them.

I’ve made other content about what to think about for your developmental edits, but a short list is:

plot structure

character arcs/development

worldbuilding consistancy

general plot holes

Think about the issues in each catagory - and don’t shy away from the big ones! Unless you face them, they will only get harder to deal with. 

For each issue you come up with, write it down as well as what’s making it an issue and what purpose it served originaly. For example:

Secret resistance group - not relevant for almost the whole story, seems random. Inciting incident

Once you have all of your major issues down, think through what the best course of action is for fixing them. 

In my example above (which was an issue in the first draft of my story), I had to choose between making it more relevant so that it could stay as the inciting incident, or cut it because of how little impact it had on the story, even through I would be without an inciting incident. I decided to cut it and make a new inciting incident.

Don’t be afraid to cut elements that aren’t working, or add new things. If the first draft of your story is a baby, and the final draft is maturity, consider the developmental edit like guiding your story through puberty. It’s gonna be awkward, and it’s gonna be rough, but you will come out the other side.

FOURTH - ADJUSTING YOUR OUTLINE

This is where you’re going to take the solutions you came up with in the last step and implement them into your outline. Start with the thing that’s going to stir stuff up the most; what scenes needed to be added, cut, or removed? Make notes on all of these changes.

Remember - no scene is guarenteed safety. This is where the whole “kill your darlings” thing comes in. That being said, scenes can be repurposed. For example, I had a scene where characters went off and did target practice. Unfortunately, I had to cut a lot of what led up to the scene, meaning there was no context. Rather than get rid of it entirely however, I figured out a different context and purpose, and moved it elsewhere.

As you move things around, make sure to keep the numbering that you did earlier on. This will help make it easier to find when you go back into your manuscript to find the relevant scene. If you’re adding new scenes, the system I like to use is [act letter].[scene number] - for example, if this is the sixth new scene I’m adding to my third act, the numbering would be E.6 (the letter e standing for end)

FIFTH - CLEANING IT UP

Now that you’ve probably go scribbles and arrows everywhere, it’s time to clean up your outline. 

Personally, I like to start by typing it all up so that everything is in order without all of the distractions. If you’ve been doing this on your computer, then you’ve pretty much been doing this as you go!

The next thing is chapters. Since you likely moved things around a bit, where the chapters are probably going to be jostled as well. Go through and figure out where sensible chapter breaks would be. Sometimes as you’re doing this, you’ll find that there are scenes you need to shift just a little bit more to make sure they fit - this is okay.

SIXTH - GO WRITE!

Now you know what changes need to be made and where. Pat yourself on the back and start WRITING!

[writing-with-olive]

How to edit characters (that already existed in your first draft

Maybe your character was too dull or too passive or maybe they’re just hella inconsistant. Anyhow, several of my characters fit all of the above in my first draft, but now they’re so much better, so here are some tips. 

1) What are they SUPPOSED to be? What was your intention for the character when you started writing them? This is especially helpful when fixing inconsistant charactarization. Ignore situations where they have to act out of character to get the plot to work (I’ll get to that later). If that wasn’t an issue, what would this character be like? This is going to be like a compass - in each scene, they’re either going to act like this, or you can directly point to something they’re reacting to that would cause them to act different. 

2) Create a character profile for them about their personality, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and motivations. Unless they’re visually inconsistant, you don’t need to worry about what they look like beyond the absolute basics (physical ability and/or race being things that likely impact their life in some way). For a guide on how I make character profiles, you can check out this post (imbedded). It’s pretty simple, and you can make some dynamic characters out of it. 

(How to implement this information below the cut)

3) Their actual voice is something that comes to me a little bit later, but consider thinking about sentence constructions, slang, the tone of their voice, and all that jazz for each of your problematic characters. 

4) Go through the story chapter by chapter. At least for the first pass, doing things linearly can help make sure you can take into account what’s already happened, and deal with ripple effects before they get too convoluted. In each scene, think about what they’re doing to achieve their goals, what they’ll notice, what mannarisms they’re likely to display, what goes into their decision making process, and what choices they actually make. Sometimes these choices can be problematic from a plot perspective if all you do is edit the character. In cases like these....

5) Cut off convenient escapes for your character. If they would not make the choice you need them to make on their own, give them a more compelling reason to do so. This can range, so be creative. Maybe they get blackmailed. Maybe a love interest influences their decisions. Maybe they think the easy route is a trap. The idea is to make them make the decisions you need them to without sacrificing their characterization. 

6) Seriously I cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to just go chapter by chapter, at least for your first pass. It’s so much more manageable, and it’s a lot easier to break down into bite sized chunks, and to create and track goals. 

[writing-with-olive]

A starting place for self-editing your novel

I wrote this in a reblog to one of @boy-who-can-fly​‘s posts, but as I couldn’t add any tags to that that would make it findable to more than just my followers, I figured I’d make the same content in an original post because YAY TAGS!

Without further ado...

1) Take a break.

Some authors have suggested taking a break for six or so weeks, but I find anything longer than three makes me too distanced from my story, and I have to work a lot harder to get back into my protagonist’s head. During this break, don’t so much as look at your story. Instead, focus on something else. Maybe growing your author platform, planning or developing another wip, or researching the publishing industry if publishing is the end goal for your book (this goes for both traditional and self pub). The point of this is that without some distance, it’s going to be a lot harder to see larger developmental flaws.

(this is a very long post, so the rest of the steps are below the break)

2) The first read-through.

After your break has ended, and you’ve got to be a little stern with yourself not to extend it farther than what you set, or else you’ll never return to it, do a readthrough. This means either just reading it off you’re computer or kindle, or going to somewhere like staples and getting it printed and spiral bound (this costs money, but I found it helpful down the line). Two rules: 1) no editing. 2) look at the first rule. This read-through is going to help give you a general sense of what is and isn’t working in your book; the problems you notice here are likely going to be the biggest ones. (if you want, you can combine this step with step three, but I found it more helpful to keep them seperate)

3) Outline.

It doesn’t matter whether you outlined before, or whether you decided to pants it. By the time you get to editing, you need to have an outline that’s reflective of what you actually put on the page. Go through your story, chapter by chapter, and for each new scene write down

what is your character’s goal in this scene

what is standing in their way

what is the outcome of the scene.

This list should not go into depth; one short sentece per point, MAX. That being said, make sure to keep things specific, so “MC wants to convice X to go with them to Y.” is going to be a lot more useful to you later on than “MC tries to convince them to go.” This outline is going to help you objectively look at your story structure, as you can see a lot more of what’s happening at once, without being quite so overwhelmed by the sheer mass of the words you wrote. Yes, this step can be a bit tedious, but it is so, so worth it.

4) Sort out what you need to fix, aka start making a game plan for your edits.

Now that you’ve read through your wip at least once through, and probably twice, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you need to fix. The key here is that right now, you want to be fixing on the global edits - the things that span beyond just a single scene or chapter. The reason why is that you don’t want to be spending hours perfecting a scene that you’re just going to need to cut later because it doesn’t advance the plot.

In a new document or spreadsheet (whatever you think will work better for you, I liked using a google doc), write issues you see with:

Each of your main cast (regarding character development, motivations voice, etc)

Setting/s (consistancy, realism for your world)

General worldbuilding (consistancy, things poorly explained/set up)

Main plot (following a given plot structure, building tension, etc)

Each subplot (how it intertwines with the main plot, plot structure, building tension, etc)

Other major things you noticed during your readthroughs

These things tend to be larger scope, and generally are worth addressing first.

5) Picking your edit.

Look at the list of edits, and see which one is going to cause the most ripples through your story. This is going to be the first thing you look at to fix. If there are more than one edits that will all have major impacts on the story, think about which edit would make the other ones easier.

For example, in my wip, Project Toxin, my plot was, well, a trainwreck and a dumpster fire’s love child. But my characterization for my MC was also a wreck. Still, getting the overall plot more in order would make it easier for me to edit my MC, so I chose plot first.

6) Make a game plan for your edit.

Before diving in and ripping through your first draft, come up with a game plan. Brainstorm possible solutions to the edit you’ve chosen, and look at what ripples it would cause. You want to make sure that what route you take isn’t going to upset something major or crucial to your story. Most likely whatever solution you choose will cause some other upsets, so just make sure to think through what makes most sense for your story.

For example, when working on my story, I was fixing plot first. Figuring out my game plan meant looking at my scene list and moving things around/adding/cutting content until I had a plot that was much more satisfactory, and that was, in my mind, not a wreck.

Possible game plans for different types of edits:

1. Plot:

Look at your scene list. What helps to advance the plot? What is dragging the pacing. Are there any elements that you are adding or cutting in your overall story that need to be accounted for? With this in mind, cross out scenes that you want to cut, move scenes around that need to come in a different order, add scenes that need to be added, and mark scenes that need to be combined into one.

2. Characters:

For each of your characters, look at their character development. It’s going to be hard to make them come to life better on the page unless you’ve got a grasp of who they are, even if you didn’t plan them out originally. If you have not, consider listing in a spreadsheet or google doc what their backstory is, what their goals are, why they want those goals, and what a few of their strengths and weaknesses are. Also think about their voice: what words do they use more often? Sentence structures? What do they sound like when they’re talking? Stuff like that. If your character is inconsistant, pick one version of them that you want to follow (knowing that they will likely change over the course of the story), and look at what parts of them you will need to change to accomodate that.

3. Setting/Worldbuilding:

I’ve put these together here as they’re somewhat similar. For poorly explained aspects of worldbuilding, look at where you might add in little details so you can better set that foundation (this is not usually a global edit). If things are inconsistant, look at what makes the most sense for your story, and like what we talked about with characters, alter the rest to accomodate that.

7) Making edits.

This is where you really get to dig in and really move things around. Using the edit you’ve picked and the game plan you’ve developed, go through scene by scene and make the changes. I strongly recommend having a seperate doc from your rough draft to store your second draft in. Currently, my process is to have both open at the same time, and if a scene is already fine, I’ll just copy/paste it over. At least for me, however, it’s usually not, and I’ll either make tweaks to fix it up, or, more often at this early stage, I’ll rewrite it. As an added bonus, I also find that rewriting it makes my prose a lot stronger, since I’ve grown so much as a writer since I originally wrote the scene.

Since you know your story better, you may find other elements that you want to change are improving as you edit. If not though, don’t worry - they’ll get their own editing pass.

8) Repeat steps 5-7

You made a list of edits you needed to make back in step four. Now, follow steps 5-7 to make all of those edits and changes.

9) Repeat steps 2-8

Two steps telling you to repeat in a row? Yes. The deal now is that you want to make sure you’ve cleaned up any global edits before moving on to anything smaller. If you’ve been thourough thus far, this will be a very fast step. If not, think of this step as a safety net. There may have been ripples that you didn’t notice earlier on, and it’s a good thing you’re catching them now.

10) Chapter edits

At this point, we’ve cleaned up all the big edits. Now we’re going to look at each chapter. Within each chapter, there needs to be a mini-arc. A beginning, middle, and end. This is the time to really focus on that. Also focus on things like tightening up prose, combining or compressing paragraphs, making sure you’ve adequately set the scene, etc. If you’re over the word count limit regarding your genre, also focus on cutting a certain number of words from each chapter to put your story back within those limits.

11) The little things

This is about combing through your wip to find all of the little errors that have made their way through edits. Typos, weird or incorrect grammar, useless adverbs, things like that. At this point, everything is on a more superficial level.

Beta Readers

Given that this has gotten quite long, I’m not going to go in depth about beta readers here, but around step 10/11, you’re going to start recruiting beta readers (you’re going to want to try and have multiple rounds of somewhere around 10 betas each, which is why having a good author platform is useful: recruiting is easier). Between each round, you’re going to look at their feedback and make the necessary edits. After several rounds of beta readers, you’re going to look it over a few more times, and then if you’re going the traditional publishing route, you’re going to query agents. If you’re going the self-pub route you’re going to look to hire a professional editor. If you’re not looking to publish, this may be the end of the line.

Good luck editing!