I'm talking about everyone's favorite part of the writing process, and that's editing. You all love to edit, right? Maybe? Hello? Real talk: I know a lot of people hate editing. It's grueling, time-consuming, and it can make you feel like an idiot. Call me a masochist, but I actually enjoy editing. We grow as we write so finding content in my manuscript, that needs improving just validates that I'm a better writer today than I was yesterday, and that's a good thing. Regardless of how it makes you feel, editing is a necessary part of the writing process, and you can't just ship a rough draft off to an editor, and call it a day; you have to do a lot of the edits yourself. Before we get into my process of editing, a few disclaimers: First, this is my personal self-editing process. That's it. It is not a universal system that works for all writers; it's just the system that works for me. In other words, if you don't like it, I don't give a crap. Second, the self-edit by no means serves as a replacement for the professional edit. The self-edit occurs before the professional edit, and the professional edit is mandatory.
by Jenna Moreci
1. I edit as I go: the controversial step — What? I know. I'm basically going to hell.
2. I edit as I go one more time: While you're writing your manuscript, you'll probably notice changes that need to be made or mistakes that have happened along the way. I keep a list of all of these changes that need to be made, and every five or so chapters, I take a break from writing and implement the changes.
3. Take a break after your first draft is complete.
4. The First Readthrough: strictly devoted to the biggest edits (developmental edits; scenes that need to be modified, faulty plot points that affect the rest of the novel, etc.) The ton of other issues that I notice that do not fall under the developmental category get highlighted which leaves my novel as neon as heck.
5. The Highlight Phase: revolves around grammar, sentence structure, and dissecting the writing itself and how it flows.
Use color coordination. For example:
yellow = sentences or paragraphs that need to be reworded — the writing sucks
blue = anything that can be condensed because I can't seem to shut the hell up
green = overused words and redundant phrasing because my vocabulary blows
6. Trimming
7. The Words Stage: the tedious details — individual words (useless adverbs, filler words, lackluster verbs, etc.) This is the phase where I get really nitpicky, and that's a good thing because your editor is going to be nitpicky, and your readers will be too.
8. Beta Feedback: where you take a look at the beta feedback and make the necessary edits
9. Read that crap one more time and another time... and maybe another time just in case.
10. Send your book baby off to an editor. And just think, in a few weeks, your editor will send your manuscript back to you, covered in red ink, and you'll get to do it all over again.
YOU ARE READING
writing 4 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜: WRITING ADVICE TO MAKE YOU A BETTER WRITER
Non-FictionWriting is hard. Being a writer is even harder. But with "Writing 4 Writers," you CAN become a better writer. Every time I sit down to write, I reference this collection of writing advice from a variety of blogs, writers, and YouTubers: Jenna Moreci...
