5 Essential Editing Tips

I promised a set of editing tips in my last blog, and now here they (finally) are!  But first, an update:

I spent the last few weeks (yes, over the holidays. A writer never rests!) picking apart my 146,000 word manuscript and attempting to reduce it to just under 120,000 words.  Two days ago, my mission was accomplished!  Final count: 119,972.  Now that my manuscript is under 120K words, it is frankly more marketable.  The industry standard today is between 80-120K words, especially if you are a new, unestablished author.

What steps did I take to axe over 25,000 words (or 60 pages) from my manuscript?  These, mainly:

1. Take a step away from your work.

This may seem counterintuitive, but this is an important first step.  If you are too close to your manuscript, you won’t see the big picture.  Spend some time away from it and focus on other things for a while.  For example, I finished my story last spring, revised it a bit in the summer, and did my serious edits this winter.  You might not have to wait so long, but this timeline worked for me.

The reason distance is important is because you need to read your work with fresh eyes.  Distance allows you to read your story in a more detached and unbiased way, as if you are a third party who has just picked your book off the shelf.

Distance also allows you to become less attached to specific words/phrases/scenes/characters.  If you’re too close to your “darlings” it is hard to give them the axe.

2. Remember the difference between editing and proofreading.

This may not seem like a step at all, but it is actually the step.  When you’re editing your work (at least for the first couple of sweeps), do NOT focus on the little things.  Editing is about evaluating the flow of the book–the big picture.  This is your chance to look at the content, characters, structure (or flow), subplots, etc.  You’ll have time to go over minute details later in the proofreading stage (grammar, phrasing, word choice, and the like).

Ask yourself, “Does this section really aid the plot?  Does it really serve to keep the story moving?”  If not, get rid of it.  It’s fluff.

One of the tough decisions I had to make was whether or not to develop certain characters.  In my first draft, I gave voices and inner dialogues to almost all characters, indiscriminately.  In my subsequent drafts, however, I was more selective.  I chose to emphasize certain characters more than others, thus eliminating several monologues and entire scenes with B-string characters.  The result: the story now focuses on my major players and the reader’s emotions are not spread too thin over many personalities and voices.

3. Use the Active Voice (when you should)

Unlike some editors, I believe there is a time and a place for the passive voice.  Sometimes it makes sense to say “Sam had picked blueberries” instead of “Sam picked blueberries.”  The difference?  “Sam had picked” implies that this is something Sam did often in the past, but no longer does.  “Sam picked” implies that Sam picked blueberries once, and I’m telling you about that one time.

That said, it is important to use the active voice whenever it makes sense to do so.  The active voice gives movement to your writing and helps quicken its pace.  It can also help you focus on clarity.  Do you really need to describe that scene with so many passive sentences?  Won’t one active sentence sum it up nicely?

4. Read slowly, re-read

Don’t expect editing to be a quick process.  It’s not.  At times, I have toiled over two pages for over an hour.
Keeping in mind the tedium of editing, set a schedule for yourself and stick to it.  Set aside, say, two hours every day to work on editing and keep at it!  This is about running a quality marathon, not zig-zagging through alleys and side-streets to arrive hastily at the finish line.

Take the time to go over each section more than once.  Do one sweep, cut some unnecessary sentences or tighten up some thoughts, then go over it again.  When I did my second sweeps, I usually ended up cutting a few more sentences (or even paragraphs) that did nothing to further my plot.

Think of yourself as a surgeon.  When you’re going over your story, take the time to determine if you really want to remove the spleen, or just the fingernails of a certain section.  Again, constantly ask yourself how this or that scene is relevant to the overarching plot.

5. Be Brave!

You lovingly crafted your words; you spent hours developing your characters’ interactions and inner dialogues; you are really, quite attached to that metaphor you created on page 82.

Sorry, editing is not for softies.  If you truly want to do a good job at editing your own work, then you’ll have to approach your story with a practical and fearless attitude, not an emotional one.  A surgeon does not hesitate when she is removing your appendix.  She realizes this organ does nothing for the body as a whole and it needs to be eliminated.
Go boldly into your manuscript and hack what needs to be hacked.

Bonus Tip: Keep a copy of your original work.

If you keep your original manuscript, you will be free to chop and slice and rework your manuscript without fear of losing something vital.  If you change your mind after the chopping/slicing/reworking is complete, you can always revert back to the original.

Best of luck!  Let me know how it goes.

-Kate