After you write the novel, the work is done, right?
Actually, you’re just getting started.
The first (and largest) edit phase is all important – the structure edit.
Ever read a book and think, “Man, the middle is DRAGGING!” or, “It took forever to get this started!”
Most of the time, if a book takes too long to get moving, I toss it.
This is a huge warning sign the novel needed a structure edit… and never got it.
What the structure edit is
The structure edit simply is taking your word count, and making sure that you’ve got your turns and inciting incident in the correct places.
Failure to pace your book correctly is like drilling a small hole in a rowboat. Sooner or later, it sinks.
An Inciting Incident must take place no later than 10% of the way through your book. Click To TweetIf you take longer, the feeling is that your book takes FOREVER to get rolling.
“The middle is boring” means you dragged out part 2A. “Takes forever” means you dragged out part 2B.
“Dull” means the ending had too many words – you should be on the climax of the book by the 90% mark.
A simple spreadsheet with formulas to reveal the length of your 3 part structure can show you what sections need trimming, and what needs boosting. Almost every novel fails to get the inciting incident done on time. If your book is 85,000 words, the Inciting incident must start by word 8,500 or… you get the idea. Considering most writers hit the i.i. by word 12,000, you can see why many books drag.
What the structure edit isn’t
Don’t expect the structure edit to fix story problems – all it fixes is pacing problems.
It also won’t fix some pacing problems that only good writing will fix – that’s simply sentence length. Shorter sentences create a sense of urgency. If this is a pre-tension scene, establish scene or background scene (most of these can be excised from your story without harm, BTW), you need longer sentences.
The structure edit will not fix those.
It will, however, fix most problems that keep books off best seller lists.
Conclusion
If you’re reading your own book and find that you’re skipping ahead to get to favorite scenes, this is a symptom that shows you a structure edit is required. My advice is this: Plan out the structure edit first. Get it over with. It’s going to take the longest of all your edits, but the results yielded will make it worth your while.
