I’ve run across a number of editing checklists as I’ve read through the blogosphere. Seems every writer has one. (Google “editing checklists” and in 0.17 seconds you get 983,000 results.) Nothing wrong with checklists. I usually peruse them and think, “Good points. I need to remember some of ‘em the next time I’m editing a manuscript.”
Do I ever refer back to any of them?
Nope. Why not?
Well … to be honest, most of the checklists are l-o-n-g. They are more like editing encyclopedias rather than checklists. Do writers really do all those dozens of steps?
If I could distill editing down to the basics, what would those key points be? I would divide editing into two phases: a Big Picture Edit and Fine Line Edits. A Big Picture Edit is a broader view of your work-in-progress (WIP) – usually your first editing pass. Don’t get bogged down in the details. Use the Fine Line Edits to zoom in and refine your writing. The Fine Line Edits step is repeated.
What do you look for during each editing phase?
- Big Picture Edit: Does your writing flow? Does your chapter or your article have a beginning, middle, end? Does your writing make sense or have you confused yourself, your critique group and, hence, your future reader? Do you have a point? (Possible points: Fiction – action or reaction scene. Nonfiction – information or persuasion.)
- Fine Line Edits: There are a variety of elements to focus in on during this stage of editing:
- Clean up punctuation, grammar, spelling. Never, ever, ever rely on spellchecker! Hint for Word docs: If there’s a red or green squiggly line under a word or sentence, right click on it to see what the mistake is. Maybe the computer is highlighting something as simple as sentence fragment.
- Read your dialogue aloud to see if it sounds real or stilted.
- Ensure your story’s timeline is accurate and that details like a character’s eye color is the same from page one to “The End.”
- Tighten tension and pacing.
- Hit the key elements taught by My Book Therapy: the Lie, the spiritual Truth, the Black Moment. Hint: If you plotted your novel with The Book Buddy, all of this should be there.
Warning: Don’t focus on all this at once. Instead, edit one area at a time. This is the “writing is re-writing” phase — or rather the “editing is re-editing phase.”
Beth, Special Teams Blogger
MBT’s Skills Coach, Beth K. Vogt provides her readers with a happily ever after woven through with humor, reality, and God’s lavish grace. Her debut novel, Wish You Were Here, will be published in May 2012 by Howard Books. She’s also written Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35 for Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) International and is a consulting editor for their magazine, MomSense, and a bimonthly columnist for MOMSnext, an e-zine for moms of school-age children.