I recently finished a short story I want to edit, but this is what always gets me: it feels too big. There's things I want to add, but they're so vague and nebulous. There's things I want the story to do, but I don't know how. There's things I want it to be, and I have no idea where to start. There's just too much. I've been writing for more than 20 years and it's always like this with editing.
I wish I could say editing gets easier every time you do it, but... uh, that is not my experience. My best advice for editing is to use the Chunk It method:
First, focus on the Big Picture items. Does the plot make sense? Can you specifically identify which parts you want to add more to? Can you nail down why? Is the point of your story clear? Maybe there's an emotion or a relationship you need to clarify, but it's hard to see unless you specifically look for it.
Next, Step It Out. Identify the Beginning, Middle, and End of your story. What are the important plot points in between? Where's the first and second turn? For a short story, you may not have many steps, but being able to identify them may help you stop getting lost in the woods.
Third, get down to the nitty gritty but only if you've figured out why needs fixing first. What can you do to fix these problems? Go back to the plotting board, switch some ideas out to see if they work better. Explain your plot to a third party - even a rubber ducky would help.
Word choice and sentence structure should always be last - you don't want to waste an hour on a paragraph you will delete down the road. Believe me, a glaring typo or bad wording may haunt you until you have to change it, but don't get bogged down in grammar fixes until you're satisfied with everything else.












