Self-editing process in 15 steps #WIPChat
Editing steps for a brain-damaged mama writer.
Sometimes the hardest part of writing isn’t the writing at all. It’s everything that comes after the writing. The rewriting, the editing, the formatting, the. . .
While writing can be so fulfilling, the rest can be soul killing. Do not let your book die in the draft phase. I am sharing the method that works for my broken brain. It’s hard work, but there are resources out there. There are many methods for doing these parts of the writing process yourself.
My self-editing process in 15 steps
Schedule of editing sweeps to make, each looking for a different thing.
1. Read the book aloud to yourself and/or listen to it aloud,
2. Write Your OWN evaluation of the story and a new summary/synopsis
3. Grammar first pass – mainly spell checking and missing words.
4. Word Consistency (places, things, compound words)
5. Name-a-holic check spellings, nicknames, etc.
6. Alpha readers
7. Plot path verification and holes, simple outline
8. Timeline event references forward and backward,
9. Character arcs and behavior, manner of speaking, moving, ticks
10. Forbidden words— had, been, that, than, this, like, just, very, actually, really, nearly, which, stare, growl, blink, shrug, nod, blink, sighed, shout, yell, exclaim
11. The dreaded ‘said’- check dialogue tags
12. Chapter length equalization, Chapter headings, listen through #2 (different voice)
13. Formatting (page layouts, dangling words/phrases, footers/headers),
14. Grammar triple pass (three different programs for me but you don’t have to be this obsessive) with clarity, conciseness, formality, punctuation, inclusiveness and sensitivity. Final Formatting verification.
15. Have the Computer READ the book to you in a third voice (as different from your own as you can find) and listen as a reader, NOT the Writer. The third time is a charm. (But so is the fourth through tenth time. J/K don’t do this to yourself.)
And now off to the Sensitivity and Beta or ARC Readers.
Note to new writers : I hope this helps. Always create a new document to edit in. Don't try to do it all at once. Take your time. One thing per week. Don't get down on yourself if you find things you don't like, keep a deleted scene document so if you change your mind later, you can rewrite and put it back in. Just because a scene doesn’t work in one book, doesn’t mean it won’t work in another, and there will always be another because writing is an addiction.
Good Luck, and never forget that your story is important and somewhere someone is waiting for it.