Writing is a strange process. Many people simply cannot finish their novel. If you’ve finished a novel, you’re one of only ten percent of writers. The strange thing is – finishing your novel is only the beginning of writing your novel.
When the process was analogue, the process was much simpler. You typed your manuscript double space, then mailed it to a publisher. The editor you worked with would line out words and sentences, hand write notes under the lines, sometimes draw circles and arrows to show where to move sentence fragments. This was called an EDIT.
The writer would now do a REWRITE. This involved propping a book against a wall and placing all of your manuscript on it. You’d add more paper to your typewriter, get a fresh ribbon in it, and you’d retype the manuscript according to the required changes.
You’d do this process three or four times. Some novels had multiple rewrites.
Your rough draft is as bad as your book will get. Click To TweetThe process is much simpler now. You write your novel in Scrivener, and some editors now take your Scrivener project directly. They put it in revision mode, and strikethrough text, littering your precious text with highlights and comments. You get it back in your email, read the first page, have a tantrum, and go throw yourself onto your bed weeping, “it’s not fair!”
Then you go to work.
Well, in today’s editing process, re-writes are uncommon. If you’ve ignored my oft-given advice about learning story structure, you’re destined to hear those dreaded words from your agent several times in your career: “It’s good. Really good. But it’s a mess. We need a cover to cover re-write in thirty days.”
WHAT????
Learn Story Structure
You read that right. Until you learn story structure and master it, you’re destined to hear those words at least once.
Do this before you write any more novels. Stop the one you’re working on and do this. I’ve written on it many times, and I promise you another one next week.
Now let’s talk about your editing process. The first draft you write is your rough draft. I’ve been writing all my life, but it wasn’t until around 2012 or 2013 that I finished a novel. I’ve learned the truth to the encouragement “your rough draft is as bad as your book will get.” (Note – I never took note of who said this – please leave a comment so I know who to attribute!)
Structural Edit
There’s four drafts you’ll need to go through. Some editors like to have you do a structural edit first – I agree with this. Write your Rough draft, do a structural edit. This places everything in your book in line with story structure. Open, Setup, Inciting incident, first turn, halfway, Second turn, climax. Make sure your story falls into this format! The reading public won’t often recognize the structure, they’ll just know your story is dragging (I.I. too far into story), boring (too far between open and first turn/Act II), not defined (second turn/Act III too far along), weak ending (no climax, the story just ends in Act III).
Get your story lined up. If you didn’t keep structure in mind as you wrote this, you’re going to be thinking a mile a minute as you do this edit.
First Draft
This is your read through and edit. A lot of people complain on this phase that they get caught up in reading it, and forget to edit. If this happens to you, here’s the solution – edit from the last chapter backwards.
Other drafts
Same thing. Read through, poke at it. Pretty simple, no? Make sure you’re doing the revision mode in Scrivener! Label your snapshots according to the draft! I tell you, there’s a REALLY GOOD FEELING to look at your snapshots and see “second draft” appended to it!
Essential edits
The next phase is grammatical. I do a forbidden word edit, then strong verb edit. I literally am hunting through my novel to find verbs, and look at a list I’ve made in Evernote of my strong verbs. In fight scenes, I use the word “Hit” over and over again. No worries, I fix this in the strong verb edit. I’ve got all the thesaurus terms for “hit” listed, and I run the gauntlet of them. Hit’s become strike, bash, slam, smash, etc.
Filter words. Get rid of them pronto. See, heard, felt. Once you know the filter words, your writing itself slows a touch as you try to write it the first time without them. I’m usually about a hundred words a day slower than I was at first – instead of 1900 word days, I get 1800 word days. But my time in this edit now is much quicker. Considering this phase can last you 30 days, it’s worth it to try to write your novel without them in the first place.
Conclusion
There’s several other stages of edits I do, but this should help you get started. The problem most writers have with editing is they have no idea what to do.
Think of writing like sculpture. You’re sculpting with words. The rough draft is assembling the rock you chip at. Editing is the actual sculpting. Cut away words until a novel emerges. See my article on Asana for Writers for information on how to chart your progress!
