This is Part 1 in a 4-part series. Part 1 covers the self-editing process, while Parts 2–4 dive into common issues to look for as you revise your work-in-progress.
It may surprise you to learn that revising and rewriting a book manuscript takes much more work than writing itself. As such, developing a robust revising and self-editing process is crucial to your success as a writer. In this post, I’ll talk about assessing your manuscript and figuring out your unique self-editing process. Keep in mind that this is a very fluid process—though the ideas I recommend may seem straightforward, everyone works a little differently. You might find yourself shifting back and forth between the steps I lay out here, and that’s perfectly okay.
Resting
Do I say this too often? Probably. But I won’t stop, because I’ve found it to be instrumental to the writing and self-editing process. I’m all too familiar with the sense of excitement and/or urgency that comes with writing a book. You want to get your book out there now. You want to put it into readers’ hands and watch it change their lives. You’re worried that if you don’t self-publish or find an agent/publisher soon, you’ll lose a window of opportunity that might not come again. I’ve felt all that before, and I’ve seen many writers feel it, too.
But in the vast majority of cases, there isn’t a huge need to rush this. In fact, you’ll likely have a much better chance of success if you slow down, take a generous break, and then take your time with the revising process.
Many writers compare their books to babies. And that’s how it feels when it comes down to it: bringing a book into a world is a labor of both love and pain, a unique kind of gestation and birthing process where we take something of ourselves and turn it into something completely new. But would you send a newborn baby out into the world and expect them to thrive on their own? Of course not. Like a baby, a book needs time to grow up enough to be ready for the world. Hopefully nowhere near as long as eighteen years, of course—but you get the picture, right?
Good things take time. So let some time pass before jumping into your self-edits.
Assessing and Brainstorming
Once you’ve taken a break from your manuscript and can come back to it with fresh eyes, it’s time to assess the state of your manuscript. Read through it and take note of all major issues you see. Make detailed notes as you go along, either in a separate document or on the manuscript itself.
At this stage, it’s best to focus on story-level issues (covered in Part Two of this series) rather than language-level ones, but you can also flag especially troublesome language-level issues (covered in Parts Three and Four of this series).
Once you’ve got a handle on what’s going on in your manuscript, it’s time to brainstorm solutions to your list of problems. This step might take some time, and it’s okay if you don’t figure everything out before you start revising. The important part is to build awareness of your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and to get your brain searching for possible solutions.
Strategizing Your Process
Next, think about the best strategy for tackling these issues. Each writer approaches self-editing a little differently, and it could take some trial-and-error before you find what works best for you. You might decide to make a list of the issues in each chapter, then start at chapter one and fix everything at once. Alternatively, you might decide to sort the issues by type or by importance and then address a few at a time.
While this process can be extremely fluid, it’s probably best to work through story-level elements like character development, plot, pacing, and setting first and language-level elements, like sentence flow and grammar afterward. This will save you work in the end—since you’ll likely be adding to or completely rewriting portions of the story during the next couple of drafts, it makes more sense to leave the fine-tuning of your language for later.
Wrapping Up
Patience here will pay off. Rather than rushing headlong into the first round of self-revisions, don't rush this process of resting, assessing, brainstorming, and strategizing. This will give your brain time to sort through this giant task you are asking it to do, and it will also help you avoid burning out and giving up halfway through your first or second revision.
Happy Writing!