How to Approach Self-Editing

Editing can be a huge task! There are many moving parts you have to take into account when making revisions. But like with any overwhelming task, you can break it down, and that’s how I suggest my clients approach their revisions.

Break it down, create a plan, work through the plan. Easy as that.

I’ll show you how I, a professional editor, approach revisions. Of course, everyone’s process is different. Your self-editing process probably won’t be exactly the same as what I’ve outlined, since what works for me might not work for you, but use this as a guide.

Note: This is an overview! I’ll be going into more depth regarding my approaches to story and language editing in the next two posts.

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Break revisions into story and language edits.

First, break your revisions into two high-level categories: story edits and language edits.

Professional editors always break their services into story and language edits (developmental edits vs. copyedits) because they know you can only look at so much of a manuscript at once.

There’s no point in pouring your energy into making sure the grammar is perfect if you have to delete scenes. I know it’s tempting to fix language as you go, but it’ll slow you down. Focus on what you’ve set out to change and flag awkward passages.

Here’s a breakdown of story vs. language edits.

Story

• Character arcs

• Plot

• Pacing

• World building

• Relationship arcs

• Themes

Language

• Passive voice

• Filter words

• Redundant phrases

• Personification

• Grammar

• Typos

• Note: I will fix obvious typos or errors as I go but leave awkward phrasing etc.

Brainstorm the elements that need to change.

You probably have an idea of what needs to change in your novel. There are two different ways of brainstorming edits: idea dumping or chronological notes.

Idea Dumping

Write everything down! There’s nothing too big or too small to write down at this stage.

Once you’ve written it all down, sort through each task and label it as story or language. You can then subcategorize each task. For example, a note you put under story could be subcategorized as a pacing issue.

Creating this list tells you roughly which areas need more work than others. From here, you can create a plan based on different story elements.

Chronological Notes

The other option is to write down all the changes you see as you go through your manuscript. Keep a list of changes you want to make for each scene.

I suggest you categorize these changes (as described above) as you go and highlight the most important ones.

Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash.

Create a plan.

Editing each scene chronologically and making all the changes at once might be your thing! But it isn’t for a lot of people. I suggest making a plan for which changes you want to implement first and how you’re going to go about it.

I advise doing different passes for different categories of changes you need to make.

Work through the plan.

Your next step is to work through your plan!

Each pass should be clearly defined so you can work through it without having to think too much about what you’re supposed to be doing when. That takes away the barrier of having to decide what you’re doing on any given day. When you sit down to edit, you can just start.

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash.

Let’s go!

Now you know the steps to tackling and conquering self-editing, it’s time to actually do it! I promise it’s not as overwhelming when you’ve figured out what you need to do and have a plan.

You got this!

And if you want a more detailed look at doing story edits, keep your eye out for next week’s post.

Want more tips on editing and writing, as well as info on the publishing industry?