You’ve done it. You’ve surmounted the mountain of world counts, brought together the twisting roads of the narrative, and inscribed the final full-stop on the monument that is your amazing story… Now what?
Well, it’s time to edit this first draft you’ve made. And yes, this is the first, there will be more and, if you’re anything like me, there will be many, many more.
This can all seem a bit disheartening, you’ve spent so long on your story and now you’ve got to go through it again. Not just that, but you’ve got to be critical, point out all your mistakes, the errors in character expression, the bad parts… If this is what you think when it comes to the editing process, then your mentality is only hindering you. Editing is the time were you can make vast improvements as a writer and make your story truly shine! It does take time to cultivate a better mindset towards editing, or anything for that matter, hopefully this blog post will give you a start on some alternative perspectives.
Take a holiday
Not as in going abroad or away from the weekend (if you can and want to, by all means, go for it!) more so take a holiday from your story. This can be whatever you decide, a few days, a week, a month, but take a step back, celebrate your amazing success in finishing your draft before coming to edit.
Not only is this a reward for your achievement but it has the benefit of giving you a fresh perspective with your story. This will help you be more constructively critical with your editing and maybe you will have new. interesting ideas for the story that you prefer over the original ones. Also, you will be far less likely to suffer ‘burn out’; the tiredness that comes with working too hard on a project for too long.
So, have a treat and celebrate because well done you!
Set yourself small sections
This can work in two ways. The first is choosing a specific focus. With novels or similarly big projects, editing them all at once can be overwhelming, especially with all the different components you need to consider. So for each ‘pass’ through your draft you may decide to focus on one thing in particular.
Things like continuity, scenes making sense, and character decisions can be one of the key points to look at in your first draft, as these can have the biggest impact if you need to change them. The details can come later. Doing this helps your mind stay focused on one aspect and make the experience a lot more manageable.
You could also choose to edit a chapter, or even a scene, at a time. This is for the same reasons as choosing an aspect, it’s not overwhelming, as well as giving you a dopamine rush for finishing each section and it also means you can really focus on the details. Personally, I like to choose my scenes at random, not in the order they appear in the novel, that is. I find that this prevents me from correcting any mistakes or filling in information that isn’t in the draft, because my brain hasn’t memorised this order and so can’t subconsciously correct what I’m reading.
Mistakes are okay
Editing is not telling yourself off but patting yourself on the back and then guiding your hand to make your work of art even better! You are going to come across mistakes, and that’s completely normal. There’s been times rereading my work were I’ve skipped entire sections because I didn’t want to write it, or I’ve done a really bad cliché. I was embarrassed by my past self when I first started editing, which wasn’t a good mindset. Why, well, noticing my mistakes showed just how much I had improved as a writer, the same goes for you, too. Correcting them helps you to improve even more.
It is a brilliant thing and you should be proud of every misstep you’ve taken because it’s lead you to the place you’re at now, a finished draft.
Whether you’re editing now, or aiming to be at some point in the future, I wish you luck! It’s hard work but you’ve done incredibly well and you’ll soon be at your goal. What would be your advice for editing? Sharing it below would be a great way to help other writers!
-S
Hint of the Week:
Building something up brick by brick will take more resources than you think!
2 Pen 