It is said that no good deed goes unpunished. I tend to think of editing like that. A punishment. I’ve just created this literary masterpiece, and now I am forced to hack it to bits. Stephen King most accurately described the process as slaying your darlings. It can be a painful and daunting task, yet a necessary one. The editing process, for me, lends itself well to procrastination and, if I’m not diligent, substandard craftsmanship when your craftsmanship should be at its peak.

So why do we edit? The most obvious reason is that we want to present our best work for consideration when submitting to a publishing house, magazine, or contest. Submitting the best possible version of our manuscript to a commissioning editor is part of our job, after all, and editors love a well-polished document arriving for their scrutiny. It is our task as writers to give them the best version to work with. Editors are busy people, and we only hamper our own chances of being considered seriously if the editor is distracted by obvious errors and typos instead of our well-crafted characters and plot. 

A deeper motivation is that when you are published, your work is in the public eye forever. Your name, and to some extent, your identity as a writer, is permanently attached to that piece, so you want your writing to shine.      

I’ve heard some colleagues argue, “Why do an extensive edit when the publisher will do it anyway? Let them do their job!”

The concept of editing just enough to receive an acceptance is a chilling thought. The sole purpose of the publication’s editing is to sharpen your manuscript so that it will reflect the publisher’s standards and maintain their integrity. Of course, they want to present a polished piece and have your best interests in mind as well. But if you submit a manuscript that has not been edited to the best of your ability, it leaves it open for interpretation by the publication’s editor. So, if we examine the process closely, the root need for editing becomes a little more clear. Your manuscript needs to be well constructed, concise, and clean, so that your vision, your passion, and the original intent of your story don’t get lost in the scrubbing.

Editing is a completely different process from writing. It’s cold, heartless, and clinical. You quite literally need to remove your artist beret and put on a technician’s hard hat. Many writers have many different approaches to editing, so ultimately, whatever works best for you is what’s best, yet there are some tried-and-true steps followed by successful authors that should be examined. So, let’s roll up our sleeves and have a look at them.

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Step One – How & When

For me, the simplest way to get into the flow is to follow my writing routines. That should work for most of us. Sit down to work at the same time of day, have your favourite beverage in your mug (heed Hemingway’s words, write drunk, but edit sober), and have background music playing or immerse yourself in dead silence. Whatever you do while you write should transfer well enough to editing. I prefer to edit in the morning, after several cups of coffee. I find I am sharpest and more productive before lunch. But some of you may write from nine to eleven at night or two to five in the afternoon. As said, whatever your time is, stick with it. Just ensure you are ready to work and are focused.

Do your utmost to maintain a minimum three-month cool-down period between finishing your first draft and editing. This is the first stumbling block for most new writers. They don’t see the need for delay and are far too impatient to put the manuscript to one side and forget about it. I’m an ‘Instant gratification takes too long!’ type myself, and I feel your pain. But it is absolutely necessary to forget as much of the manuscript as possible before you begin your edits.

When you are drafting, you know the story, you are intimate with the characters, and you know where they and the plot are headed. This is good for plotting and weaving tales, but bad for editing. Remember, your readers don’t know any of those things. They only know what you show and tell them, and that is what we are editing. If the story, the plot outline, and the character profiles are still fresh in your mind, you will undoubtedly be corrupted by the lingering ghosts of them and miss some glaring lapses in your manuscript during the editing process. 

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Step Two – First Draft Edit

Alright, you’ve fidgeted and paced and sweated out the last ninety days, and it’s time to get to work. The first order of business is to print your manuscripts and sharpen a red pencil. I know, in this age of abundant writing programs, you are wondering, ‘Why would I print it?’

Simple. To stop you from fiddling with it. We now know it is best to edit after you have forgotten as much of the tale as possible, and this first post-break read-through is your reintroduction to the characters and story line. You need to sit and read that manuscript from front to back as quickly as you can and identify plot holes and inconsistencies. 

If you are on your laptop, as a writer, you can’t stop yourself from fixing those errors right then and there. But now is not the time. If you find a plot hole in chapter three and fix it, you may have just created another in chapter eight because you have forgotten the subtleties of your story! When you print your manuscript, you are left with no other recourse than to circle the problem area with your red pencil and make a note about it. All you are doing in the first draft edit is getting the manuscript ready for your beta reader. 

Once you have identified all the major inconsistencies, it is up to you. Fix them and only them, or leave the manuscript as it is, to see what your betas have to say. I leave them in to see if the beta picks up on the same areas of concern as I have identified.

Think of this round as opening the front door of an old cottage you’ve purchased. Yes, you will see the cobwebs and note the hole in the roof and the broken window, but it is not yet time to start cleaning, make repairs, or begin decorating. You are just opening up the cottage to show your trusted friend, who just happens to be an interior designer. Or, in our case, a beta reader. 

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Step Three – Beta Read

Beta reading is essential. It is the most effective toll-gate measure to ensure your story makes sense to a reader and you are getting your message across clearly. Beta readers are not editors, and you should not expect them to dive into your manuscript to line and copy edit. What you are humbly asking them to look out for are plot holes, missing information, and inconsistencies in your character arcs, and to relay back to you their overall impressions—what they liked, what they didn’t, what they loved, and what they despised. But most importantly, what they just didn’t understand. 

Beta readers are all different. Some are happy to dig a little deeper, and some will give you grand overviews, but all feedback is useful and worth consideration. Never forget, they are providing you with a service, and it is a big favour to ask. 

One of the most differing viewpoints among authors is who to ask and how many of them. There are a lot of thoughts regarding this: trusted friends who read, complete strangers, just one, or up to five. The arguments vary. Trusted friends may not want to hurt your feelings and be supportive rather than give you a good critique. Strangers are not familiar with your style of writing, and may not like it, thereby tainting their input based purely on style. Not enough beta readers will give you a good cross-section of viewpoints; too many will overwhelm you with differing suggestions. So, what to do?

I have one trusted beta reader who has read the majority of my work. They are brutally frank, and I trust them. I use this beta as my benchmark. Sometimes I will use another, if not for the entire manuscript, at least for a chapter or two. But this is my process.

I would recommend that, in the early goings, you solicit at least three different betas. Try to expose your work to a good selection of readers. This will not only help improve your manuscript but also help you identify your target audience.

Keep in mind that all readers are different and will have different takeaways from your story. This will hold true with beta readers’ suggestions as well. Don’t be surprised if you receive three vastly contrasting sets of critiques. As said, every reader is different, as will be their perceptions of your story. 

The things you want to watch out for are the common threads in all critiques. If all three readers say they couldn’t identify with the antagonist, that is a strong indicator that your character needs depth. If all three said that chapter four was dragging, then you can bet there is an expository lump in chapter four.

Also, keep an eye on those suggestions that resonate with you. If a beta questions an action by a character in a certain scene for seeming a little out of their arc, do you get a tingle in your stomach? Were you thinking that in the back of your mind as well? If a beta reader’s suggestion stirs something in you, even if it comes from only one, it needs some work. Don’t ignore that writer’s tingle. It’s your muse shouting at you.

As for the rest of what I call the ‘one off’ suggestions, look at them closely, give them fair consideration, then go with your gut. At the end of the day, it is your story, and while you want as many readers as possible to enjoy your work, you can’t please them all. So, stay true to yourself and your tale.

The most important thing is to have your work beta read, whichever way you decide to go. Just ensure your beta reader(s) are more than willing to be honest. Assure them that they will not hurt your feelings and that you want genuine and open critique. Don’t let the negative assessments get you down. Take them in the spirit they were given, to improve and sharpen your work.

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Step Four – Developmental Edit

Now that you are armed with all the feedback from the beta readers and your printed manuscript is littered with red circles and accompanying pages of notes, return to the comfort of your laptop, computer, or tab and dig in.

First, decide what feedback from the betas you will implement and build a plan for how to fill in the plot holes you identified in your read-through. Now, let’s spring into action and do exactly that! It will take some time, and that’s okay. Developmental edits never go quickly, nor should they. 

Once all the repair work is complete, let’s do another complete read-through, paying close attention to some key areas of the manuscript. There is no need for another print copy. We will work solely within our writing program from here on out.

In this phase, we want to be buffing out all the rough spots, adding depth where needed, cutting out the expository lumps of explanation and backstory, as well as removing the over-indulgent chunks of descriptions for characters and settings. The reader is travelling along your story like a sports car on a highway. We don’t want any traffic delays. The only sharp turns or bumps in the road should be intentional plot points carefully crafted by you and only at key points in the story. Cut out anything that doesn’t propel your plot forward. The reader’s journey should be effortless and smooth as silk. 

Some essential areas to examine are:

• Dialogue/Inner Monologue – Keep it clean and natural.
• Show, don’t tell – We all do it. Find the tells now and fix them.
• Characters – Watch their arc, consistency, and behaviours.
• Redundancy – Have you belaboured a point or repeated story elements?
• Essential Information – Is it all there? Is the story clear?

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     Step Five – Line Edit

It’s all about style! With the developmental edits handled, we will now focus the lens from macro to micro. Forget the overall manuscript, scene, and paragraph, and focus on a single sentence at a time. Immerse yourself in each one and demand that every word in that sentence has fought for its right to be there!

Some writers will tell you that this is where the magic truly happens. This is where we transform the cumbersome into the svelte, the sloppy into the precise, and the murky into the concise. I affectionately refer to this step in the editing process as the hack-and-slay bloodbath. But that’s just me. 

Start by reading your sentences out loud and feel the flow and texture. Question its integrity, demand its honesty, and craft it to perfection. Examine its readability. Is it sticky, awkward, or run-on?  

Be just as ruthless as you were in your developmental edit, hacking out unnecessary or redundant words and phrases. 

During the line edit, your primary targets will be glue words (and, get, just, than), hesitant words or hedging your bets words (seemed, appeared, perhaps, assumed), adverbs (slash them without mercy), passive voice, and weak words. Keep a sharp eye out for clichés and overused sensory words. As you did in the developmental edit, look closely at your plot and ask each sentence, ‘Are you moving it forward?’

Be just as critical with your dialogue. Read it out loud. Is it natural, is it necessary, and does it suit your character, the time period, and the situation?

Key points to watch for:

• Balance and proportion – Sentences must fit the scene’s circumstances.
• Tone – Sentences must fit the scene’s mood. 
• Pace – Vary sentence length, maintain a rhythm, a heartbeat.

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Step Six – Copy Edit

At the end of your line edit, you will need to do another gear change. While line editing is all about style, copy editing is all about mechanics and consistency.

First on the list are spelling and grammatical errors. You may think that these should have all been cleaned up by this point, but often, while we are developmental and line editing, our mind can skim over spelling and grammatical errors because we are focused on other things. Your mind will read what it needs to, not necessarily what is written.

Consider the following:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer. be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

And don’t rely blindly on writing tools such as Pro Writing Aid or Grammarly. They routinely miss errors. They don’t swap out there for their and often autocorrect colloquialisms or deliberate spelling errors. Be wary of that.

Another key component of copy editing is to ensure the manuscript maintains consistency. There are many ways to portray inner monologue, but for this example, let’s assume you italicise thoughts and use a dialogue tag as an identifier.

How long is this editing process going to take? he wondered. 

In this round, you ensure all your inner monologue is presented in the same format. Also check your em dashes, indents, scene break indicators, quotation marks, and margins. They should all be the same. 

Now is also the time to fact-check. Can the Porsche 911 your antagonist was driving in the climactic chase scene really do 300 kmph? Do pine trees grow in your main character’s home town? No? Then why does the wafting breeze smell of them?

In the copy edit, you should also identify and repair your echoes.

It was such a lovely day. Kimberly absolutely loved walking in the park. It was the preferred meeting spot for her and her lover.

Jargon and acronyms should be targeted and eliminated here unless you are certain the meanings are crystal clear.

Did you spell out your numerals? The only time I don’t is for a date, time, or for relaying the bore of a gun. But however you handle numerical information, make sure it is consistent throughout the manuscript. 

Are the characters and location names all spelled the same? Did Aashish become Ashish? 

And, of course, setting cosmetics. Don’t have blue drapes in the living room in one scene, then beige in the next. 

Do another scan of your timelines and check for discrepancies. 

The five C’s of copy editing:

• Clear 
• Correct 
• Concise 
• Comprehensible
• Consistent 

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     Step Seven – Proofread

     Congratulations! You have reached the final editing step before you can send your work to a publisher. This is the quality control phase. After completing such an intensive scrub of your manuscript, you may be inclined to rush the proofread. Don’t! 

This time, force yourself to read slowly. Execute the final scan like an exterminator. Seek out those pesky punctuation, sneaky grammar, and incredibly resilient spelling errors that hide in the weeds all the way to print. Pick up the lingering typos, formatting mistakes, and style and tone inconsistencies. 

The last step is ensuring your manuscript/story meets all the guidelines set out by the publisher/contest to whom you are submitting. All submissions have guidelines, some very stringent, some a little more lax. They cover everything from content, font use, line spacing, and word count to submission dates, inclusions such as synopsis and cover letters, and everything in between. Adhere to them strictly. Nothing puts a commissioning editor off more quickly than your manuscript arriving in single-spaced Calibri 11 when they asked clearly for Times New Roman 12 double-spaced.

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Conclusion

As mentioned at the outset, a full manuscript edit is laborious, tedious, and heart-wrenching. Yet the need for quality editing cannot be overstated. Proper editing in no way guarantees that your manuscript will be picked up by a publisher. But I can almost guarantee that a poorly edited manuscript will not be.

Self-editing is essential, but keep in mind that no matter how good we fiction writers get at the task, it will never replace professional editing. After all, we are writers, and editors are editors. It’s what they do. 

If you are submitting to a traditional publishing house, you can expect another round of edits from their in-house editing staff. It may be extensive—do not lose heart, and consider their edits carefully. It’s been my experience that as bitter a pill as editing suggestions from a professional is to swallow, they are normally appropriate. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight for your story, your vision, and your voice, but be pragmatic. They have been down this road many times before you and know the pitfalls.

If you have opted for a hybrid or vanity publisher, be a little more vigilant with their edit suggestions. Are they thorough enough? Have they run developmental, copy, and line edits? Feel free to question them on the ‘scope’ of editing services included in their fee. This is a business for them, and cost is a factor. They want to prepare, print, and release your work as cheaply as possible.

If you are self-publishing, you may still want to hire a professional editing service to go over the manuscript before you continue. Remember, once your work is in print, it’s in the public eye forever. You can find a comprehensive list of them here:  https://himalayanwritingretreat.com/book-editors-in-india/

Another facet of editing you may want to consider is beta reading for sensitivity and diversity. This type of scrutiny is manuscript/character/story-specific and can be very beneficial, particularly if you are not a member of the race, religion, or sexual orientation of the group(s) explored in your story. 

The last point I would caution you about is over-editing, particularly in the line edit phase. I have been known to be on such a quest for creating crisp and streamlined prose that I swallow words and leave gaps. 

An editor friend of mine once told me that given enough time, a writer will fiddle with their manuscript until they ruin it, essentially editing it right into the wastepaper basket. There comes a point when you have to say, “Enough. It’s done,” and let it go. 

There is a balance to be found, a line to be trodden between artistic flair and the grammatically correct. Literary rules are made to be broken, boundaries must be pushed, and innovation in storytelling is what keeps the old tropes relevant. Whatever you do, do it consistently, keep it tight, clean, and engaging, and write without fear. Identify your style and voice, edit it well, and then give it to the world.