Editing is a personal journey. No two writers will go about it the same way. For me, I’ve found a process that helps me stay focused and shapes what will ultimately become the final product.
Writing a first draft is the easy part. For me at least. That’s the part of writing I love most, where I don’t know what’s going to happen next, where I’m meeting the characters for the first time outside of my own head. The first draft is the only part of the writing process where I enter a flow state. In that state, I can listen to music while writing and it doesn’t distract me. In fact, I think it enhances the writing.
Compare that with editing. When editing, I have never found myself in a flow state. If I have any sound around me while I’m editing, I get too distracted to focus on the work. Without focus, the edits are useless. Now, there are many types of editing, and the process for each type probably varies for each writer. I know it does for me.
Let me explain the various stages of editing and how I approach it.
Second Draft
I know what I’m getting into with the second draft. I’m going to find all of the easy-to-spot plot holes, all the simple grammatical errors. I’m going to find underdeveloped characters and forced dialogue.
That said, I’m probably not going to be making huge structural changes in this draft. So, I will create a new document, paste in the entire contents of my first draft, and I will read and edit as I go. If I spot something on page 200 that doesn’t make sense because of something I wrote on page 20, I’ll go back to page 20 and adjust in the moment.
I do this until I have patched over the obvious plot holes and caught most of the grammatical issues. I will have cleaned up a good chunk of dialogue but the characters will still probably need some developing.
As a quick aside, I create a whole new document because even with version history on documents, I like to have a distinct file copy of each draft I write. It’s like my own personal historical record.
Third Draft
This is where things get interesting and I might deviate from what a lot of writers do (tell me if I’m wrong!). The third draft is all about plot and character development. There will still be cleanup work, but this draft needs to be about the larger picture.
To accomplish this, I once again create a new file for this draft. However, instead of copying the second draft in, I open the second draft side-by-side with this blank third draft. And I write the third draft from scratch.
I type out the same lines from the second draft until I feel like something could be better or cut or adjusted in some way. Sometimes this means I rewrite entire scenes. Sometimes it means I create entirely new characters as I write. And sometimes, though more rare for me because of my writing style, it means massive cuts.
By typing the entire manuscript out again in this draft, I feel connected to the characters and the plot in a way that I am able to shape them into a much more publication-ready state.
It takes a long time to edit this way.
All Other Drafts
For everything after the third draft, I edit inline. I create one final draft file and copy the contents from the third draft in. I then start normal line edits and will adjust characters and plot points as I go. I will occasionally add in this draft, but it’s really about cutting or changing more than adding.
These drafts are the ones where I am also editing based on reader feedback. I don’t send my manuscript out until the third draft is complete. Then, when I get beta feedback, I will act on the feedback I agree with in these drafts.
How many drafts is “all other drafts”? I never know. It might be one more, but probably not. It could be many more. The key is making sure the story works and the characters feel real. It’s all about making sure you are putting the best possible work out there regardless of whether you will be self-publishing or querying an agent or submitting your fifth book to a traditional publisher.
What about you?
I’d love to hear how other writers approach the editing process. Please share in the comments. And as always, if you like my articles, I hope you’ll subscribe.
Writing is rewriting as they like to say. I'm someone who outlines like a madman. So by the time I get to the first draft, I know where I'm going, but I don't know what interesting places I might find along the way.
Second draft is often worse than the first. I start removing scaffolding to see what falls apart and what stays together. A professor I had named John McManus has two habits that I use when I'm stuck. One is literally looking at the word count of a piece and finding a way to tell the story in HALF the words. The other is to take each page, print it out, read it, give each page a grade A, B C, etc. and then keep at it until all the B and C and D pages are A's. I think he might be a little crazy. But who among us isn't?
My problem is I never know when I'm done exactly. I almost always come up with a reason for another pass which is why I like publishing things so I can stop myself from doing that.