Some Easy Steps to Editing Your Novel, a Post by R. Clint Peters

I recently went hunting for some ideas on editing my latest novel, The Michigan Connection, a Ryce Dalton novel.  I was not disappointed. The search term, “How to Edit a Novel”, returned 53,700,000 hits.

I wasn’t willing to read through 53,700,000 Internet articles, so I picked a half dozen, read them, and consolidated the information into one, hopefully, concise and helpful treatise.

First, what are you editing for?  Are you trying to tweak the story line, more fully develop the story, or add conflict?  Is it your editing goal to focus on the pace of the novel (decidedly, one of the most important parts of writing)?  Are you revisiting the voice of your novel, the perspective of the protagonist or narrator, the viewpoints of your hero or heroine?  Or, are you simply looking for typos and grammar?  Each of these edits might require a different approach.

Almost all of the articles assumed a completed novel, and suggested it be set aside for a minimum of a month, preferably six.   My publisher wants my book NOW.

I am trying to edit and write at the same time.  Many of the articles won’t let me do that, but I have discovered an approach that might give me the ability to finish the book and complete the first step in the editing process.  I hope it will be helpful for members of The Author’s Club.

A note on Dialog:  before editing or writing, go to your library and check-out 10 Rules for Writing by Elmore Leonard.  Mr. Leonard is a well-known and successful writer (Get Shorty, and others) who espouses the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule.  He has also written that the only word you should use for someone speaking is “he or she said“.  They didn’t grumble, chuckle, or shriek.  (My characters actually chuckle.)

However you approach dialog, the most important part of your writing should be “show, don’t tell“.  I recently deleted a book from my Kindle that started out with a very good concept, but the first nine pages were narration.   Don’t tell me what happened; write the book so I can “see” what’s going on.

Now that I have 75,000 words written for The Michigan Connection, a Ryce Dalton novel,  I am looking for an exit strategy.  I need to get out, I need to move my attention to “Murder by Suicide”, a novel I have excerpted on this blog.

Before we go much farther, many of the articles indicated there are four stages to writing a book, that you will actually write the book four times:  1)  Write the book;  2) Re-write the book; 3)  Re-write the book; and 4)  Re-write the book.

Almost all of the Michigan Connection, a Ryce Dalton novel has been written once.  If it was a normal writing sequence, I would be performing the first edit (or the second writing).  But, I am actually still trying to get out, so there is a lot of writing still occurring.  I can do one of two things:  Edit on the fly, (called in-line editing in stage 1 above), or complete the book and then perform the first edit.  Either way, I have to complete stage 2.

The concept of in-line editing is rather simple and incorporates stage 1 and 2:  write for a day, take a nice break (eight hours seems about right),  edit what you did yesterday, and then write some more.

My personal recommendation for In-line editing:  At the beginning of each day of writing, add a string of stars (*******) to your novel directly after the last line of what you wrote yesterday.  Then, scroll back to the line of stars you inserted the previous morning and start to read.  You might have twenty lines or twenty pages.  You are looking for several things:  1)  punctuation;  2) grammar;  3) typos  — all the mechanical errors introduced to the writing process the previous day.

When you arrive at the stars for the new day,  scroll back to yesterdays stars and delete them.   You will be inserting and deleting stars every day you are writing until you tap on that final period.

If you started your book with in-line editing, you will have completed the 1st stage of your novel when you arrive at the final period.  At this point, according to the articles, you hide the novel somewhere on your hard drive and walk away for 30 to 180 days.

When you rediscover your novel, it’s time for the second stage.  This one will be the easiest of the edits, but will produce the most missed opportunities.  Start at word one and read until the last period.  Obviously, you’re looking at the story line, the pace, the voice, the conflict, the emotions, the viewpoints, and all of the mechanical errors you missed in the in-line edit.

Performing the second edit of The Michigan Connection, a Ryce Dalton novel, is going to be very difficult.  It didn’t start out life as a Ryce Dalton novel.  I’m using 50,000 words from another novel.  Ryce doesn’t enter the plot of the book until approximately halfway.  My focus for the second edit will be to move him into the plot sooner and more often, to allow the book to become a Ryce Dalton novel.    My editor wanted another Ryce Dalton novel.  If I am unable to produce an acceptable version, I will go back to word number one and start something new.  Hopefully, I can successfully complete the second edit and move on to the third.

Some articles called the third stage many things and had numerous suggestions for how it should be done.  Almost all the articles said PRINT IT, use a red pen to mark it up, and then make changes using the edited copy.    Shoot, I’d have to go buy a red pen.

I haven’t tried that yet, but it certainly is an idea.  My plan is to turn on the edit function of Microsoft Word, and make a lot of red lines on the manuscript printed on my computer monitor (after I copy the manuscript).  I am not editing the original the first time I try this process.

The best suggestion I read, (should I choose to print my novel for editing), is to copy the file into another document, and then double-space the second version.   When the double-spaced copy is filled with red, the next step would be to make changes  to the original.  The biggest drawback I can see is coordinating the computer file with the printed file.  I think I can more easily copy and paste between files.  I also thought I could fly when I jumped off the garage roof, but that is a story for another time.

When the third stage is finally completed, it’s time to start the final stage, a process I call “the mirror edit”.  It will be done in front of your mirror.  Start back at word one and read the novel.  By now, you should have picked up all the inconsistencies, mistakes, errors, and performed plastic surgery on your book.  For the mirror edit, you will look for places the novel doesn’t flow, spots where you stumble, areas where you look at your image in the mirror and wonder how the author could actually write this tripe.  A double-spaced manuscript and a second red pen might be a good idea.

Eventually, you will wonder if all the pain and agony is worth it, if your destiny is actually to be an author.  However, when you’ve read the last period of the book, you are truly finished.

One final thought about editing.  One article suggested putting the book aside for eight weeks, and during those eight weeks, write one short story every week.  I have a short story bubbling around in my grey matter that I plan to publish on The Author’s Blog as soon as I can find my exit point.  I think you might like it.  Stay tuned.

#RClintPeters #TheAuthorsClub