So you finished writing this amazing novel, right?
And now you have to edit it.
And the thing is probably one of the least fun parts of writing a novel,
but it's also the most beneficial.
I mean,
first drafts are for hammering things out,
but it's the edit,
which really makes your work shine.
If you're here and wondering if you actually need to edit your book,
you absolutely have to.
And it's not just a simple pass with a spelling and grammar checker in word.
And then off you go to the publisher,
this is taking your book apart bit by bit and going,
does this work,
does this work for the reader?
Does this tell the story the best way I want it to my name's Kat clay.
I'm a Melbourne based crime and horror author.
And I'm going to take you through today how to edit your novel
So the first tip I'm going to give to you today is to take notes while you write
the book.
So while I'm writing the book,
I really want to hammer out a first draft.
I want to just nail it out to 3000 to 5,000 words every day that I'm writing.
And I don't want to get bogged down in the nitty gritty too much.
I mean,
if there's a big plot point,
then yes,
I will take a pause and look back on it.
But most of the time,
I just want to keep writing and get the words down,
what I call getting the skeleton of your story down.
So for me,
I take notes as I write,
I'll make a little note to say,
to fix this later,
or to look into this later.
My next tip to you is to actually step away from the edit.
You need to take time off from your manuscript before you edit it.
So don't just finish the manuscript one day and then the next day go into,
I'm going to edit this thing because you need to actually take at least four to
six weeks off the book to clear your head.
You want to look at it with fresh eyes.
So the first thing I do in my editorial process is what I call a mechanical
edit.
And that's using the tools that are available on my computer.
So using Word's spelling and grammar checker,
using ProWritingAid in order to do the heavy lifting on a lot of the
easier changes in my manuscript.
And so that enables me to have a fresh mind for the harder bit,
which is more of the structural and character editing.
So for me,
one of the first things I will say is to turn on track changes.
So track changes in word will allow you to see where you've made changes and you
can do different versions of this.
So if it's bothering you,
seeing all that red,
all the strikethroughs through this editing process,
you can turn on simple markup,
which is what I often do,
but it's important that you also have multiple versions of your draft and label
them correctly.
So for me,
I keep the original document that I wrote as draft one,
and I don't touch that.
So I make a copy of draft one and save that as draft two.
And that's what I edit on.
I don't want to edit original,
even though I probably could see the changes I've made,
because I want to know what I started with and eventually what I end with.
And I go through this process multiple times.
So every time I do a major revision,
I save a new draft.
So the first thing that I do is I run it through Microsoft Word's basic spelling
and grammar checker.
You would be surprised at how much stuff this actually picks up.
Just make sure that you are on the right country settings for your book.
Um,
not what country you're in,
but if you're writing a book set in America,
you want your spelling and grammar checker set in American English.
Otherwise your book will have a lot more changes later on down the track.
The next thing I do,
and I'm going to do another video on this is I run through the whole process in
a software called ProWritingAid.
And it's a really great application that plugs into Microsoft Wword.
And I do things like my writing style check.
I check for repeated words,
I check for more grammar,
more spelling.
But a lot of that helps me find repeated words,
things that don't make sense,
cliches and I especially find the writing style check helpful,
because it tells me where I can clean up the manuscript and tighten it right up,
which leads me into a really important point,
which is I spend a lot of time eliminating filtering words.
I write in a very close third person.
And so I don't want the reader to feel distant from my character.
So filtering words,
those kind of words that make you hesitate like he thought,
or she heard,
or they looked and they actually slow the reader down,
especially in terms of that closeness to the character.
So I actually manually search for these words in the manuscript and go
through and try to delete as many as I can.
The other thing I go through and delete my little tells.
So I often use the words of course,
or kind of,
and then I realized that in reading it,
I've used them too many times and per writing aid and other software can really
help you identify those kinds of words and help tighten them up from the
manuscript.
So once you finished that mechanical edit,
the hard task begins.
This is all your structural editing,
your character editing,
where you really pull things apart.
So the first tip I have for you in this process is that you need to print
off your manuscript.
It's really hard to visualize your manuscript fresh again,
by looking at it on the screen and by printing it off,
we're allowing ourselves to see it in a new light.
And you'd be amazed at the amount of things you pick up by actually printing off
the manuscript and go through it by hand.
And this can be quite tiring process.
So it's really important that you take it in bits.
So with editing a large manuscript,
I do what's called passes and passes are ways of simplifying that
process.
So on one pass,
you might look for characterization.
On another pass you might look at clarifying your language.
On another pass you might look at spelling and grammar,
and that way you're only looking for a specific type of problem.
So one of the first passes that I will do is to delete and
clarify.
So deleting and clarifying is about tidying up any excess verbiage,
any extra language that is just shouldn't be there and to really
make things clear to the reader.
So if it's not making sense to you after reading it and you wrote it,
then you should probably delete it.
And this is one of my biggest pieces of advice.
If in doubt,
delete,
think about is this necessary to the scene?
Does this make sense for the reader?
Can I express this in a way that is simpler and makes more sense?
These are really important questions to ask yourself,
because if it doesn't make sense to you,
then it's not going to make sense to the person reading it.
Now,
I don't do a lot of structural editing myself because I spend three
months plotting my novel before I even write it.
And so that's really important to me to spend the time early so that I can save
time later in editing my novel.
But if you find something's not quite working,
I can recommend writing it all out,
every single scene on palm cards and just writing.
It doesn't have to be fancy.
It could just be like,
you know,
Bob goes to the shop and a brief note on what happens in that chapter and lay it
all out on the floor.
And it might actually help you be able to see where there might be some holes
that need filling or where things need to be rearranged.
And it's really important too,
that if you start rearranging scenes that you just make sure that that's
consistent afterwards and that people in the next chapter,
aren't referring to things that haven't happened yet or things that happened
previously.
And you just need to make sure that flows properly.
So when you're tired from all this editing,
and you can't see the forest from the trees and you want to throw your
manuscript in a trash fire and burn it,
that's probably the time you should be showing it to people.
This is the time where you get beta readers.
Now,
beta readers are people who will read your book as a first pass and to say what
they liked or what they didn't like about it.
And especially what I find really helpful is when they tell me what was
confusing about the book beta readers,
don't have to be other writers.
I get writers and non-writers alike to read my books because it's really
important to know what a reader will think.
Someone picking it up off the shelf and reading it at home.
So that's an important thing to remember.
Now I'm going to do another video on how to find beta readers,
but I've got some from my writing group.
I also inflict it on my poor relatives,
but it's really important that they understand what you're trying to achieve
with the novel,
but that also you're willing to take their feedback on board.
And you need to be open to receiving criticism as hard as that is,
it will make your book better.
And I know it sucks getting feedback that someone maybe didn't like your book,
but just take it on board.
The other thing to note with beta readers is that you don't have to make all of
their changes,
but it's really important to know where they were confused and what wasn't
making sense.
If multiple beta readers bring up the same feedback,
then it's probably something that you might need to change about your book.
Following on from beta readers,
another type of reader that might be really important for your work is a
sensitivity reader.
Are you writing something that is out of your own experience or perhaps about a
culture that's not your own a sensitivity reader can help identify
areas that may not feel authentic and how to make your work better.
Now,
a sensitivity read is a paid reader,
but their rates are usually very reasonable.
I'm writing a book about a Korean American woman,
and I'm likely to get a sensitivity reader for that and that's to make it the
most authentic and interesting book that I possibly can.
My final word of advice to you is don't be
lazy.
So it's very easy when you're writing your book to say,
I'm going to insert cool battle scene here and leave it there.
And that's pages and pages of work that you have to do later in your edit,
hands up if you've done that before.
So the main thing in your editing is just if there's a change that you have to
do,
but you're afraid of it,
or it's really hard,
but it's going to make the book a better book.
Don't be afraid to do it.
You want the book to be the best it possibly can.
And when all else fails,
delete,
right?
I'm Kat Clay.
And I would love it if you hit subscribe to my videos.
That's it from me on how to edit your novel and good luck with revising your
work.