Novel (or Long Novella) Editing

Hiya Peeps!

I'm in the middle of editing my next novel (which will likely end up being a long novella - about 50,000 words), so I thought I would share my editing process. I've already shared how I edit my short stories, and while a lot is similar, my novel (and novella) editing process is a bit more involved. I have 9 stages of revision for my longer pieces. As I've said on all my posts about how I write, I'm mostly sharing this in case you're looking for a few hints to liven up your own routine, though I'm just as happy if you read it out of curiosity and continue doing what you do!

Before I start editing at all, I feel it's important to give the 1st draft some time to cool off. With longer works, the more distance you put between the draft and the editing process, the better. I like to give it at least two weeks, and a month is even better. While you wait, you might start plotting your next book, get a short story written that you've been dying to tell, or simply take a couple of weeks and read, catch up on TV and some movies (or family time if that's your bag), or otherwise decompress if it was a rough draft to write. Everyone is different, and what you need to do to get your sanity back is perfectly fine! Personally, I usually work on a short story while my novel sits and waits for editing.

When it's time to begin, I have 9 steps ahead of me. I currently use my laptop and my iPad in my editing process, and I'll explain how in each step. If you only use one gadget, that's no problem, as you'll see. You could even print out your manuscript and use a trusty red pen for most of the steps. I used to do that years ago, but with printer ink being more valuable than gold, I've since kept it all electronic. So, anyway, here are my 9 steps of revision.

1st Step: This is a quick read-through. I simply want to read through the draft to remind myself of everything and catch mistakes that I can later fix. While I'm writing, I'll often find inconsistencies or things I'd simply like to change, but it would kill all forward momentum I've built up. I have a file labeled "Revision" that I put these notes in, and I keep writing as if I've already fixed the problem. So in this read-through, I'll add on to this file if I find anything inconsistent, or if I have a new idea for a scene, character, setting, or whatever. It's not the time to fix it yet but simply label it. In this 1st step, I rarely even fix grammar mistakes. I complete this step on my laptop because I find it easier to add to my revision list.

2nd Step: This is where I dig into that revision file. While the 8 other steps are a front-to-back read and revise, this step often calls for me to jump around the manuscript. I create a second file, naming it something along the lines of "Revisions This Time" or something similar, and begin copying and pasting revision notes from the first file into this one. I use the word processing program Scrivener, so it's easy to have two files up on my screen at the same time. Of course, you can figure out how to do this with most or all word processing programs. Many of my notes are about a certain chapter, and I will put those into the new file first. For example, in my current work, Metalcore Minx, one of my notes said: "Ch.13, when the young couple asks for autographs, make sure it’s a better metal conversation—meaning they need to call her Mistress of Death at least once, say it’s strange to see her out of her makeup and costume or something." After getting the chapter notes done, I use the more general notes to fix the story. Sometimes this 2nd step could be four or five or more runs through the story until I'm happy that my revision notes have been implemented or otherwise found to not be necessary. I use my laptop on this entire step.

3rd Step: This is another quick run-through from front-to-back to make sure me implementing my revision notes didn't "break" any part of the story. Basically, I make sure the narrative flows once all the heavy-lifting has been done. I use my laptop for this step, mostly because it will begin to alternate starting with the next step.

4th Step: This is where my polishing of grammar, sentence structure, word choice, and other such things begins. I have the story in the linear order I want, so now I want to make it sound good. Unlike steps 1 and 3, I run through this step slowly so as to catch mistakes. I do this step on Scrivener on my iPad, mostly to get a physically different view of it.

5th Step: This is the same as the 4th step, but I'm back on my laptop. Again, this simply gives the eye a different superficial look at the same words. I don't know if it truly helps or not, but it feels like it to me, so I continue doing this.

6th Step: This is the same as step 4. By the time I'm done with this run-though, I'm ready to move on.

7th Step: This is where I use the editing program SmartEdit. I use it the same way I do when I edit my short stories. Feel free to click on the link in the 1st paragraph to read that post. The only difference between using SmartEdit with short stories and novels is time. Obviously, it takes much more of it in longer works. This program is on my laptop, so that's what I use.

8th Step: This is one final polish where I pay close attention to grammar, word choice, and other such fun stuff. I also make sure the story still flows after running it through SmartEdit. I can use either my laptop or iPad for this step, whichever is more convenient at the time. 

9th Step: This is the final editing step. I use a text-to-speech program to listen for typos and other mistakes which are often hard to catch when reading to yourself. I also find it helps me discover how the story flows. Personally, I use the program called NaturalReader, and like with SmartEdit, I talked about it in my short story editing post, so feel free to check it out there. Also, like with SmartEdit, the only difference between short stories and novels using NaturalReader (or any other text-to-speech program) is the time it takes. I use my laptop for this step since that's where NaturalReader is. I couldn't find anything I liked as well on my iPad.

Those are my 9 steps to revision. It takes quite a bit of time, especially the steps where I like to go through slowly to best catch mistakes or find better ways to say things, but it's worth it in the end. The finished product looks (and reads!) so much better. The book still needs to formatted for publishing, but that's a topic for another time!

What do you think? Does this look anything like how you do it? Does anything look like something you'd like to try? Or was it just nice to see how another writer works? I'd love to hear any comments! Thank you for reading!

Editing Short Stories

Hello Lovelies!

Today I thought I'd tell you how I edit my short stories. Feel free to use some or all of my techniques, or simply read and move on, happy with your own system. As long as you edit your stories, it's all good! (But, please, no matter how you do it, edit your stories!)

The first thing I do is simply read through the draft. I do this in one sitting, which, let's be honest, with short stories isn't too much of a time-sink. If I find typos, I fix them, but otherwise all I want to do is make sure the story, from front to back, is fresh in my mind. If I find any glaring plot problems during the read-through, or otherwise discover a way to make the story better, I fix it now. Otherwise, if I'm happy with the structure and how it plays out, I continue to my next read-through.

My second read-through is pretty much the same as my third, fourth, fifth, and however many I need before I'm happy with the story. (Usually by my fourth or fifth, I'm ready to move on.) I check word-usage, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and all that good stuff to make sure the prose sparkle. I want my dialogue to sound realistic, the story to not be too passive, and words to not repeat too much, or at all, if possible. If you get to a read-through where you're not finding many things to change, it's probably time to move on to the next stage. If you're not sure, another read-through won't hurt.

One thing to remember, though; you will be able to tinker with a story forever if you want to. You change and grow every day, so you'll find something else in your story with every pass. At some point, you need to say, "It's ready." When I find I'm at that point, I move to the next step.

My next step is a program called SmartEdit. No, it's not free, but I find invaluable. I use the stand-alone version, not the Word plug-in. I copy and paste my manuscript in, and it makes a number of checks for me. Personally, I have it check my adverb usage, possible misused words (ex. accept vs. except), redundant words, and my monitored words, which is a list of many words I know I use far to often (ex. that, was, up). There are other things it can check, as well, and you just need to click on an option for the software to add it to its compiled list. It helps trim up my prose, making it leaner and meaner. The best part is you can get a 10-day free trial, so you can see how well you like it. I'm sure you can also Google other programs, some maybe free, to help clean up your story.

If you don't want to use a program at all, you can make a pass where you focus on only adverbs, one where you check words which you know you know you use too often and eradicate them if you can, and so on and so forth. You can do the same thing as SmartEdit or other programs, but it's going to take a bit longer. If you don't mind that, or are good at focusing on more than one task earlier in the read-throughs, you're all set.

After I use SmartEdit, I give the story one more read-through to make sure I didn't jumble anything while removing words. Also, one more read-through is never a bad thing to make sure everything still flows. I then move onto my final (editing-wise) step. 

This final step is another program, but it's free, and you might already have one downloaded on your devices. I listen to my story with a text-to-speech program. Personally, my favorite is NaturalReader. You can download it at that link for free. Whatever device you edit on (laptop, desktop, iPad, etc.) may have a text-to-speech program built in, but I find the voices on NaturalReader are the easiest for me to listen to. There is a floating bar so you don't need to copy and past anything, simply highlight the text you want read, and push play. Other programs may work just as well, but I love NaturalReader. There is also a paid version, but for my purposes, and likely yours, there's no need to go to it. Every once in a while, the voice will stop so it can offer you a chance to upgrade, but it's an easy two clicks to get back to your work. 

Why do I suggest using a text-to-speech reader? First off, it's the best way to find pesky typos or wrong words. Often the eye skips over typos, but if you're listening at the same time, you'll pick them up. You can also determine if a sentence or passage sounds unnatural to the ear and fix it. It's also easier to tell if dialog sounds natural when you listen rather than simply read it. Basically, I highly suggest you don't skip this step for the hunting down typos reason, but you'll also benefit in other areas.

That's it. Once I finish listening to the story, I'm confident my story is ready to be published. I know it's a lot of steps, and my longer short stories (those running 10k to 15k words) often take a week or longer before they're ready. But, honestly, that's no time at all to make sure a short story is ready for the world to see. When I'm editing a novel, I often spend a couple of months to make sure it's polished to my perfection, but that's a topic for another time.

Once you've finished editing, you need to ready your manuscript for publishing or submitting, depending on what you're doing to it. I will talk about how I ready a story for Amazon in a future post, but for now, you see my editing process. As I said at the beginning, feel free to follow each of my steps, but if you don't, that's fine, too. We all do things differently! (But, for the love of all that is holy, don't finish your first draft and deem it worthy of publishing. Guess what, it's not ready!) 

Feel free to leave a comment if you enjoyed reading about my process, totally agree or disagree with it, want to let me know how you edit, or anything else! Thank you for reading!