I use to hate editing my novel. I adored the rush of writing a rough first draft. My approach to editing was reading my novel from start to finish and hoping any issues would magically present and correct themselves. I’ve spent the last 20 years as writer, editor, lecturer and mentor developing a series of practical exercises and questions to make my works-in-progress submission ready. Now I love the editing process because I know it’s the difference between a good novel and a publishable one.
I’ve collected everything I’ve learned through this long and intense process of trial and error in The Ultimate Guide to Editing Your Novel: A revolutionary approach to transform your writing – published in June by Bloomsbury. Below are five of my top tips and exercises selected from the more than 75 in the book.
Edit in Layers
We can’t edit for everything all at once. Edit the big picture first and slowly and systematically work your way from the big picture to the minute detail. Edit in layers. Don’t waste time in line editing when you may ditch an entire chapter. Solve overall issues of plot, subplot, character arcs, theme, pacing, and setting before line editing and proofreading.
Analyse your novel chapter by chapter
When editing, we read what we ‘think’ we put on the page. The exercises in my book are designed to help you dissect your work, discover the story that’s actually captured on the page, and shape it to achieve the ideal experience for your future readers. Below is a simplified version of an exercise in my book that helps you break down and then re-build your story chapter by chapter. Once finished the exercise, you might want to consider:
- Milestones: Note significant plot points and epiphanies. Analyse based on genre. If you are writing a mystery, where are your clues and red herrings? If it’s a romance, mark the progress of the relationship. Are you happy with the pace of your story and how the drama unfolds?
- Duplication: Do you notice any duplication in the action or importance columns? Is this duplication necessary? Do you need more than one chapter to show your protagonist’s lack of self-confidence or fear of snakes, for example? Do you have chases on foot and in a car and are they too close together? Maybe there’s another action that might accomplish the same goal.
- Are there enough conflicts, obstacles and complications? Don’t make it too easy for your main character to succeed. How are your conflicts, obstacles and complications spaced throughout your novel?
- Do you have chapters that are significantly longer or shorter than the rest? Why? Readers appreciate consistency. Know when you are changing the rules for your reader and do so for good reasons. Is a longer chapter the first kiss in your romance and you want your readers to linger in the moment? Or is a short chapter a shocking revelation and you want readers to experience this surprise?
- Does your chronology work? Not every chapter needs to cover the same amount of time, but make sure the passage of time makes sense for your story and won’t confuse readers.
- Every chapter must be absolutely necessary to achieve the experience you want for your reader. I use this inventory to cut or re-organize chapters. Every chapter must earn its place in the story.
Exercise:
Create a table with the following five columns: Chapter | Action | Importance | Length | Timeline
- First column: List the chapter number. If you aren’t using chapter numbers, note how you designate sections – with date and time or point of view character, location and year, for example.
- Second column: Note the most important thing that happens in this chapter, literally a phrase or two.
- Third column: Write why this chapter is important. Does it move the main plot or subplot along or show us something important about your main character?
- Fourth column: How long – in pages or words – is this chapter?
- Final column: How much time passes in this chapter? It could be a specific date and time such as Thursday 18 June 2020 from 9:15 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. or more generic, such as day 1 or even minute 1.
Character Analysis
This exercise will help you review your novel character by character, enhancing, combining or even eliminating characters.
Exercise:
- Give each character a different colour by using the ‘find and replace’ function in your word-processing software. Type in one character’s name in the Find what: box, then copy and paste the same name in the Replace with: box. The name in both boxes must be exactly the same. If using Microsoft Word, hit the Format button at the bottom-left corner of the ‘find and replace’ box and select Highlight. Choose one of the colour options that appear when you select the Text Highlight Colour button. Now click Replace all.
- Your draft should now have a rainbow-collection of names throughout the document. First analyse each character’s place in the story one at a time. Make sure each character is essential to your story. Characters that only appear sporadically in your novel could be ones to cut. Are there characters that always appear together? Is each important and unique or could they be combined?
- Now read your story character by character. Read only those scenes that include a specific character and read them one after the other. Ask the following questions of each character: What is the character’s role in the story? Is each character compelling and distinct? Consider how they look, sound and act.
By isolating one character at a time, you can scrutinize each detail to make sure you’ve consistently represented the character throughout the story. I’ve had characters with blue eyes early in the book and green eyes in later chapters. It’s amazing how easy it is to more fully develop each character when you give them individual attention.
Colour-Coded Analysis
This exercise helps you discover how you tell a story at a sentence-by-sentence level. Not only will it force you to consider each and every sentence, it also will provide a colourful analysis of how you weave description, action, dialogue and exposition into a story. Do this on a sample chapter or two to start. Highlight each sentence in a different colour based on its purpose – dialogue, action, description or exposition. Most sentences will be a single colour, but you may find that some lines do double duty. I like to do this on a printed copy using highlighters, but you can also use the highlighting function on your computer.
Dialogue – I highlight dialogue, including internal dialogue, first because it’s the easiest to spot.
Action – Use another colour to designate action – big or small. These could be sentences with sweeping action – jumping from a helicopter or passionately kissing. Or they can be small movements – winking or smiling, for example.
Description – Highlight in a third colour any description. This can be scene setting, building atmosphere or describing a character.
Exposition – If you’ve highlighted lines in the order above, any colourless sentences will most likely be exposition – places where you are telling your reader something.
Exercise:
Spread your highlighted pages on the floor and look at the pattern of colour. What do you notice about the mix and quantity of colours? Is there too much or too little of any specific colour? What did you learn about the way you craft a story?
You can also read your manuscript colour by colour. Here are a few things to look for:
- Is each character’s dialogue distinct? Could you select one line of dialogue and know who said it?
- Do you have any ticks when describing the setting or character? Do you always note what they are wearing or describe their facial expression? Are your descriptions too similar? Have you picked the right details?
- Do you have too much or too little action? Do you have scenes where your character doesn’t move much, if at all? Or maybe you make your character move after every piece of dialogue.
- Can you minimize exposition? Exposition is a necessary part of prose – for narrative summaries, for instance, or to vary the rhythm and texture of a story. But use exposition sparingly. Resist the urge to ‘tell’ your readers too much.
Now edit your manuscript based on what you learned.
Read and analyze for inspiration
Read books in the same genre and for the same age reader as your work-in-progress. The more you fill your brain with great writing, the more likely you are to produce it. Read for inspiration but also note what works and what doesn’t. And if you are having problems with some aspect of your novel – a character’s emotional arc, for example – find an author who has mastered this aspect and learn from them.
The difference between a good novel and a publishable one is a rigorous revision process. These are samples of the practical advice and hands-on exercises in The Ultimate Guide to Editing Your Novel.
Happy editing!
