How I Approach Editing
and some future plans
First, I have a quick announcement:
I have decided to self-publish my novel, To Make Him Disappear. It follows Audrey, an acerbic, fifty-six-year-old woman, and her spunky Gen-Z sidekick as they investigate a con man who’s trying to defraud Audrey’s daughter.
I’m learning a ton about self-publishing, so I wanted to see if people who read my Substack might be interested in learning alongside me? Please let me know in the poll.
Because I’m planning to release this novel in the spring (no release date yet), I’ve been deep in revisions. It got me thinking about the process in a critical way.
Here are some of the things I believe make books stronger, in no particular order.
Don’t be afraid to cut. Yes, it hurts to remove a gorgeous sentence, but if it’s not serving your story or slowing down the action, then it needs to go. If you think you might need it later, open a blank document and paste everything in there. Trust me, you will come up with more great sentences that will fit the story even better.
Often, when people need to cut words, they focus on the storyline. It’s a great place to start and remove large chunks of text. However, if you find that your novel is still too long, focus on the sentence level. For instance, instead of “she said quietly,” you can say “she whispered.”
Search for filler words, such as “just, that, feel, looked, started, saw, really, very.” You might have your own patterns and words that repeat a lot.
EXAMPLES:
Instead of “Audrey started to put on her earrings,” you can say “Audrey put on her earrings.”
And instead of “Audrey looked out at the playground and saw children playing,” you can say “Children played on the playground.” Since we’re in Audrey’s POV it’s implied that we’re seeing the world through her eyes.
Speaking of implied, comb through every sentence and see what can be cut because it’s obvious.
EXAMPLE:
In this article, I had this paragraph: “Don’t be afraid to cut. Yes, it hurts to remove a gorgeous sentence, but if it’s not serving your story or slowing down the action, then it needs to go. If you think you might find a place for it later, open a blank document, and paste everything you have cut in there.”
The bolded part is implied by the rest of the paragraph. I removed it, and the paragraph didn’t lose any important content.
I love to use “but”. When I’m polishing, I go through every sentence and see if I can separate it into two while maintaining the contrast I created by using but.
EXAMPLES:
Instead of “this method might add more words to your work, but it will also add sentence variety,” you can say “while this method might add more words to your work, it will also add variety.”
Instead of “He wanted to say something unkind, but held his tongue,” you can say “It took all his willpower not to say something unkind.”
Ultimately, you’re the one who makes the call on the prose. Part of taking feedback is deciding which advice to keep and which to ignore. Everything about writing is a skill. That means you get better the more you do it.
Let me know your favorite editing tips and tricks in the comments.
Good luck with your publishing journey! I’m curious as to how it works out. I’m updating my manuscript now and thinking about next steps.
With edits I’m always on the lookout for passive voice. I also have a lot of sentences with the structure ‘As X, then Y’ and I’m trying to get rid of a lot of those.
I read a tip that rewriting your novel from scratch forces you to really cut down on unneeded parts. I've never tried it, because it's absurd when I barely have time to write as is. However, I think a less drastic version would be: if you feel yourself skimming sections, maybe it's time to cut them. It would be tedious for you to rewrite them, so why would a reader want to read them?