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Writing a book is a huge accomplishment, and you deserve to celebrate when you get to that final full stop. However, in terms of getting your novel ready for publishing, that first draft is just the beginning.
Generally, the point of your first draft is to get your story out of your head and write it down while the ideas are fresh, so editing is the last thing on your mind. Now your story exists “on paper”, it’s time to get that first draft publishing-ready. In other words… time for revision and self-editing.
You might be wondering why you need to revise your novel yourself? Or maybe why revise it at all? Don’t you just need a proofreader to look for typos and then get it up on Amazon?
Of course, you could just get someone to give it a proofread, and then publish it, but honestly, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you do. First drafts are honestly a bit of a mess and there will definitely be places you can make improvements, whether that's tightening up your writing at sentence level or increasing the tension at story level.
You won't be publishing the best book you can if you call it done straight away. Even experienced authors don’t get everything right on the first draft, and if you want your publishing endeavours to be successful, you need your best work out there for readers. If you put in the extra effort to publish a polished, well-edited book that is easy and satisfying to read, readers will be far more likely to leave you a good review, recommend your books to others and click on your next release with confidence.
There are people who think self-publishers aren’t serious authors and the only reason they self-publish is because they can’t find a publisher to work with them. Unfortunately, it’s writers who don’t put in the time and effort to perfect their books that give self-publishers that reputation for poor writing. Take your time to properly and thoroughly revise and self-edit your novel and you can prove the doubters wrong.
As well as knowing you’ll be publishing your best work, the revision and self-editing process will improve your writing in the long term as you learn from your mistakes, and as you get more experienced you could even save some money when it comes to hiring a professional editor because they’ll have less work to do.
There are two distinct levels of editing: story-level, also known as structural editing, which comes first, and then sentence-level editing.
Story-level editing is when you look at the structural aspects of your story such as plot, characters and settings.
In this post, I’ve also included big picture technical things that affect your book as a whole such as POV. This is because some issues need fixing at different stages depending on the size of the problem. For example, one or two instances of head-hopping could easily be fixed during a sentence-level edit, but if it’s something you’re consistently doing, you need to fix it before you move on to editing at sentence level. The same goes for “show, don’t tell.” A few lapses will mean only small rewrites, but if it’s a book-wide problem, that’s a lot of rewriting that needs to be done.
Do as much of your story editing yourself as you can, but if you think you need more help when you’ve finished, you will need to hire a developmental editor for this type of editing. Carefully read through your story with a critical eye, looking at things such as:
Story structure is the arc of your story that ensures your novel has a recognisable beginning, middle and end. There are several different story structures that writers can use as a framework, such as the Hero's Journey or the Three-Act Structure, which will help you decide on the development of your character goals and story conflict. Make sure your plot points follow the story structure you've chosen, and that things aren't missing or in the wrong order.
Conflict is a vital part of all stories and even a low angst story needs some of it. At its most basic level, conflict is a character having to do something they don’t want to do. Without it, there is no character development or tension to keep your readers invested in what’s going to happen next.
It’s normally provided by a mixture of both external events and internal feelings and beliefs. Often, internal conflict drives the way your characters respond to external conflict, and the character development occurs when they overcome their internal conflicts to behave the right way to achieve their external goals.
Does your story have sufficient conflict to make it interesting? Is the conflict and the way your characters handle it believable?
Make sure your plot makes sense and there are no holes or unresolved plot points. If you have plot twists, are they believable within the rest of the story? Do events happen in a logical order? Or could things be moved around for greater impact or to improve pacing? Are your subplots important for the story, or are they just taking attention away from the main plot or confusing your readers? Depending on your genre, there will be certain things your readers will expect to see in your novel, such as a first kiss and a happy ever after in a romance. Does your plot fit the expectations of your genre?
Check there are no errors in your timeline such as incorrect time hops, random changes in ages, or someone doing something they wouldn't be old enough to do. This is especially important if you have flashbacks or your story spans a long time. The more eagle-eyed of your readers will notice if a flashback happened ten years ago, but your character is only eight years younger in it than they are in the current timeline. Make sure any time jumps are clearly marked and easy to follow.
Your characters are arguably the most important part of your story. Your readers need to care about what happens to them or they aren’t going to have any motivation to keep reading. This could be because they like them and want to see them succeed, or because they desperately want to see a villain get their comeuppance.
Are your characters well-rounded with distinct voices and personalities? Are their internal and external goals clear? Do they develop and grow as the story goes on? Keeping their development in mind, do they ever act in a way that is out of character or doesn't make sense for their personality or lived experiences?
When analysing your story, consider if any scenes would make more sense or add more interest if they were written from another character's point of view?
In some novels the setting plays a huge role, such as in the magical world in a fantasy novel or the post-apocalyptic world in a gritty thriller.
Regardless of your genre though, the details of your settings should remain consistent, and your setting should support your story. Sometimes, the setting initially may not appear to be as important, such as in a contemporary romance. However, settings aren’t just the places in which your story takes place; they also include things such as the weather and things happening in the world at the time.
Do your settings add atmosphere to individual scenes and support the overall mood of the story? How do your characters react to the environment they’re in? Can you better use that environment to help or hinder them?
Pacing is the speed at which your story moves. Some stories will naturally move faster than others, but the goal is to hit a sweet spot between boring your readers to tears and giving them a headache as they try to keep up.
Both the events of the plot and your writing can affect the pacing of your novel. If your characters are doing action-based things, such as fighting or having a heated discussion, your writing needs to match the events unfolding. Sentences will be short and punchy, there won’t be lots of internal narrative or external description, and your characters’ actions will move swiftly from one to the next. Conversely, when your characters are having a quiet moment to explore their thoughts or notice their surroundings, the pacing slows down along with the amount of action taking place.
Does the pacing of your writing match the pacing of the action? Are there parts of your story that drag on for too long, or charge by too fast? Do you need to add in more action? Or calm down a bit and include some slower moments?
All writers have heard of “show, don’t tell” but sometimes it’s easy to fall into a habit of telling without realising. Show, don’t tell means exactly what it says; immerse your readers in your story by involving them in the action, not simply telling them what is happening.
Showing paints a more detailed, immersive picture and is key to making your readers feel like they’re experiencing your story and getting to know your characters, instead of simply reading about them. If you struggle with showing, think about how your characters are feeling and what they are noticing as they experience the situation you’re writing about.
Remember, though, you don’t have to show every single little thing; sometimes, it’s far more efficient to tell your readers something rather than slow the pacing of your novel with irrelevant details.
Are you getting your readers involved in your story by showing them what your characters are experiencing? Or are you simply narrating a series of events? A good way of spotting if you’re doing a lot of telling is searching your story for filter words like saw, noticed, thought, felt, heard, or decided.
As you read through your story, you need to make sure you've stayed in the correct POV throughout. This could involve simply correcting where you've slipped from 1st person into 3rd (or vice versa).
Sometimes you need to look deeper though. Have you accidentally managed to give your characters mind-reading powers? Your POV character won’t know what another character is thinking or feeling. They can only guess based on the other character’s expressions or actions.
Have you written parts of the narrative from the point of view of the wrong character for that scene or chapter? This is called head-hopping and makes reading your book confusing for your readers. Make sure you only describe what is going on from the perspective of the current POV character, and don’t chop and change too often. Most authors stick to one POV per chapter, but if you do swap during a chapter, do it for large sections only, and mark the change clearly.
Now, you may be thinking this all seems like a lot of work, and it is! But if you want people to buy your book, you need to publish a book that is worth paying for. And if you want those people to become enthusiastic fans, eagerly awaiting your next novel, you need your book to be polished and professional.
Story Evaluation: Get a detailed review of your story and an in-depth, author-friendly report and action plan that dives deep into what works and what could be improved in your manuscript. This is for you if you want help figuring out where and how you can improve things like your plot and character development or big-picture readability issues like POV and show, don't tell. Find out more about story evaluations here.
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