In a guest post on Writers in the Storm, Janice Hardy shares three tips for editing your novel. “While there’s something exciting about writing a first draft, I always look forward to the revisions,” she says. “It isn’t until I see how my story unfolds that I fully understand where I can make it stronger.”
Her three tops tips for editing include:
- Create an Editorial Map. Also called a book or story map, an editorial map helps you capture the action, conflict, stakes, and resolution in a few sentences, so that you can identify the plot elements that move the story forward. To create your map, simply summarize what happens in each chapter and scene. “I mostly look for plot and character arc details–the protagonist’s goal, what they physically do in that scene, what problem they face, how it turns out and how this leads to the next scene,” Hardy says. “If you find a scene where nothing happens, that’s a big red flag that you might need to add goals, conflict, or stakes, or even get your protagonist out of their head.” This map can also help you find repetitive scenes. You can also use this to confirm your but-therefore causation links, Hardy says.
- Do a “Problem Words” Search. An easy but necessary step. Search your document for weak writing, such as adverbs, filter words, and your overused crutch words. Find stronger verbs, more concrete descriptions, and better ways to phrase your stock verbiage.
- Check the Transitions: Chapters and Scene Breaks. Hardy suggests checking how each scene and chapter ends to see how they transition to the next. “If a scene isn’t ending with a reason for the reader to keep reading, that’s an opportunity to tweak it so it does,” she says.
