(LOGO)
Hellooo, everybody!
Today I'm talking about everyone's favorite part of the writing process.
And that's editing!
You all love to edit, right?
Maybe? Hello?
Real talk, I know a lot of people hate editing.
It's grueling and time consuming.
And it can make you feel like an idiot.
Call me a masochist, but I actually enjoy editing.
We grow as we write.
So finding content in my manuscript that needs improving, just validates that I'm a better
writer today than I was yesterday.
And that's a good thing!
Regardless of how it makes you feel, editing is a necessary part of the writing process.
And you can't just ship a rough draft off to an editor and call it a day.
You gotta do a lot of edits yourself.
So today I'm breaking down my personal self-edit process for all you cyborgs.
This vlog is dedicated to two of my patrons over on Patreon, Sherry and Jerry.
(Sing-song Voice) “Sherry and Jerry, their names rhyme.
They are awesome all the time. Yeah!"
Both Sherry and Jerry requested a vlog about my personal editing process.
And I aim to please!
Thanks so much to both of you for all your love and support, you guys are the best.
Now before I get into my process, a few disclaimers.
First, this is my PERSONAL self-edit process.
That's it.
This is not a universal system that works for all writers.
It's just the system that works for me.
In other words, if you don't like it, I don't give a shit.
Second, the self-edit by no means serves as a replacement for the professional edit.
The self-edit occurs BEFORE the professional edit, and the professional edit is mandatory.
Now let's get to it, shall we?
Step Number One (1): A controversial step.
I edit as I go!
(Shocked Voice) “Whaaat?”
I know, I'm basically going to hell.
Here's the deal.
It's not generally recommended to edit your manuscript while you're writing it.
The reason for this is simple.
Most people who attempt this, can't stop.
They get fixated, they’ll edit the same chapter again and again,
and never continue writing the manuscript.
Of course, there are rare exceptions to the rule.
And I call these people ‘Fuckit Writers’ because they have the ability to stop mid-edit
and say “Fuck it, we're moving on!”
If it wasn't already clear, I am indeed a Fuckit Writer.
My edit as I go system works like this.
I will spend the entire day writing without reading over any of the material.
The next day I'll edit everything that I wrote the day that i wrote the day before.
And once I'm finished, I will continue writing.
This pattern goes on and on until the chapter is complete.
The benefit of editing as you go is that your first draft reads more like a 10th draft.
Because it's not really a first draft since you've edited it already.
The negative is most people who attempt this get sucked into a black hole of editing that never ends
I do NOT recommend this step for everyone.
Step Number Two (2): I edit as I go one more time.
While you're writing your manuscript, you'll probably notice changes that need to be made,
or mistakes that have happened along the way.
I keep a list of all of these changes while I'm writing and every five or so chapters,
I take a break from writing and I implement the changes.
I do this for a couple of reasons.
One, it makes the edit process less of a nightmare.
And two, changes early on in the story affect the rest of the novel.
Why would I continue repeating the mistake if I can just fix it now.
Again, this is a step that I do not recommend for everyone, but it works for me.
Number Three (3): Take a break.
After your first draft is complete, it's usually a good idea to take a break from your manuscript
and return to it later with fresh eyes.
So I usually take about a month-long break and by ‘take a break’ I mean I'm still
working my ass off, just on something else.
Creating a marketing plan, prepping vlogs, starting the sequel—whatever.
Exhausting yourself is fun!
Once that month-long break is over we hit step Number Four (4): The first read through.
My first official read through, the editing process is strictly devoted to the biggest edits.
Scenes that need to be modified.
Faulty plot points that affect the rest of the novel.
Here we're focused on developmental edits, issues that are story specific.
Of course, while I'm reading the manuscript, I'm going to notice a ton of other issues
that don't fall into the developmental category.
Problem sentences and poor wording do not get tackled in this step.
Instead they get highlighted, and let me tell you by the end of my first read through my
manuscript is neon as fuck.
Which brings me to step Number Five (5): The highlight phase.
This stage revolves around grammar and sentence structure.
I dissect the writing itself and how it flows.
Now if you've been following my channel for a while, you'll know that I'm obsessed with
color coordination, and that applies to the edit as well.
I have three different highlight colors that I use, each one representing a different kind of edit
Yellow refers to sentences or paragraphs that need to be reworded, the writing sucks.
Blue refers to anything that can be condensed, because I can't seem to shut the hell up.
And green refers to overused words and redundant phrasing, because my vocabulary blows.
I go through each chapter one by one and focus exclusively on the highlighted sections.
It's a bitch.
But it's also a vital part of the edit because this is when you take your prose from meh, to pretty good
Next we have step Number Six (6): Trimming, I am an over writer.
That means I have a tendency to write way more words than my story needs.
And I devote an entire cycle of my editing process just to trimming that word count down.
Now there are some writers out there who think that because their underwriters, they don't
need to do any trimming, but we are all guilty of throwing in words or phrases that don't benefit the plot
In short, we all got to trim to some extent, it's just over writers like me have to do
a hell of a lot more of it.
I entered the trimming phase with a specific number of words that gotta get the axe.
And once I've gone through my manuscript enough times to reach that goal, I move on to the next step
Number Seven (7): The word stage.
At this point, I am focused on the teeniest details, individual words.
I'm looking for useless adverbs, delete!
I'm looking for filler words, get them out of there!
I'm looking for lackluster verbs, replace 'em!
This is the phase when I get really nitpicky, and that's a good thing because your editor is going to be nitpicky.
And your readers will be too.
Now we'll move on to step Number Eight (8): Beta feedback.
This particular step can occur at any point in the editing phase.
And since you should have multiple cycles of betas, it’ll probably happen more than once.
This is the part where you take a look at your beta feedback and make the necessary edits.
For some people, the edits will be major.
For others, it'll be little things like rephrasing conversations, or fiddling with fight scenes.
The point is this step needs to happen at some point in the editing process, or else
why did you enlist these betas in the first place?
Now we hit step Number Nine (9) : Read that shit one more time.
And another time, and maybe a third time just in case.
And let me tell you, every single time I read my manuscript, I still find stuff to edit.
(Frustrated Pause)
But at this point, I've tackled the major issue, so any problems that
I find are usually on the small side, or things that I was ignorant to before and only recently discovered.
And finally, after all that work, we reached step Number Ten (10): Send your book baby off to an editor.
Because you CANNOT skip the professional edit.
All right?
No exceptions.
And just think, in a few weeks your editor will send the manuscript back to you covered
in red ink, and you get to do it all over again.
So there you have it.
That is my personal self-edit process.
Please keep in mind that while I listed ten individual steps, most of them require multiple read throughs.
You can't read through your manuscript one time and expect to find all the wording issues,
it's going to take some repetition.
Additionally, you probably noticed that my editing process starts pretty general, and
then gets more specific with each round.
During my first read through I focus on content issues.
Then I move on to paragraphs and sentences.
And by the end, I'm focusing on individual words.
My personal process might not work for you, but I do think that focusing on the bigger
edits, and then working your way down is a great way to go about it.
Once again, I gottta give a huge thank you to Sherry and Jerry for requesting this topic,
and for being a part of my Cyborg Army.
If you'd like to have the chance to have a vlog dedicated to you, or if you want access
to TONS of other rewards, check me out on Patreon.
I got the link listed below.
And on that note, don't forget to subscribe to my channel.
I post new videos on Wednesdays.
Eve: The Awakening is still available in ebook and paperback on Amazon, right now.
You can also order a signed copy, all the links are listed below.
And if you have any questions, be sure to Tweet me @JennaMoreci!
Bye!