In this video, I share my editing process in writing. These are 8 steps that I take when editing a novel. If you’re looking for tips on how to structure your book editing process, this video will help you to give thought to your characters, plot, dialogue and more.
If you’re in need of an editing/writing process, this video will provide book editing tips that you can implement prior to an editor taking a look at your manuscript.
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Video Transcript for My Editing Process – How To Edit A Novel
Hi YouTube author Stefanie Newell and this is The Life Of A Writer channel.
Today’s video – How To Make Revisions While Writing A Book. If you want to connect with readers and sell more books, make sure to subscribe and get new content to your inbox every Tuesday.
But in today’s video, I’m going to be sharing a viewer related question (and I definitely want to do more of these types of videos in the future), so if you have a question that you think will benefit our entire writing community, please share it in the comment section below. And I’ll pick out a few and feature them in an upcoming video.
Today’s question comes from Kelsey and her question reads: Hi Stefanie my name is Kelsey I’m and I’m currently working on my first book my question is: what does your revision process consist of? I’m in the middle of revising my book and its hell to say the least. Do you have any tips for a noob like me?
Tip #1 in my editing process
Are your main and minor characters described? Characters that are going to reappear over and over again whether they’re major or minor characters, you want to make sure that you’re giving them a good description: describing what they look like, giving them personality traits, and things of that nature.
Now with that being said I do want to encourage you not to do information dumps where you’re describing their hair color, the length of their hair, their eye color, their skin complexion, what they’re wearing, all in one paragraph. Our readers are smart enough to get that information doled out to them little by little and you can do that over the course of pages, paragraphs, chapters, however you see fit but make sure you’re not doing an information dump.
Tip #2 in my editing process
Do each of your characters have names?
Tip #3 in my editing process
Oftentimes when I’m doing manuscript critiques for my clients I find that first-time writers are often challenged by point-of-view so make sure that you are keeping a consistent point of view throughout your story. So what that means is if you’re writing in first person make sure that your story is told in first person consistently throughout the story.
If you’re writing in third person make sure that your story is told consistently in third person throughout the story. So the easiest way to check for that is to look at your pronouns and make sure that you’re using the correct pronouns throughout your entire story.
Tip #4 in my editing process
Are there any plot holes that you need to fill?
Tip #5 in my editing process
Is there enough conflict? Conflict is also going to help with the pacing of your story. It’s going to help to keep your reader engaged and they’re not gonna feel like your story is lagging.
You definitely want to have enough conflict for your characters to resolve. So what that means is you don’t want to have chapter after chapter where nothing is progressing your story. You definitely want to have a good balance of conflict within your story.
Tip #6 in my editing process
Does the story keep your interest? If you’re in the editing process and you’re rereading parts of your story and it’s not keeping your interest it’s likely not to keep the interest of your readers. So don’t feel bad about editing or completely cutting out certain parts of your manuscript.
Tip #7 in my editing process
Does anything jump out at you every single time you read it? For example: grammar, it’s too wordy, it’s not described well.
Tip #8 in my editing process
Show not tell where possible!
Everybody’s revision process is going to look completely different. So the reason why it looks different is because obviously all of us have different strengths and weaknesses.
There’s some areas that are going to be really strong for some of us and then there’s going to be other areas where we kind of need to develop those areas. Maybe it’s plot… maybe it’s characters… whatever it is. So everybody’s revision process is going to look a little bit different. If there are other things that you need to give some focus to, maybe grammar or punctuation and things of that nature, you definitely
want to include it.
If you want to connect with readers and sell more books make sure to subscribe, but in the meantime make sure you check out my playlist for fiction writers. As always all of my social media links will be in the description box below.
If you’re looking to hire me as your writing coach you will find that information there as well and I look forward to talking with you in my next video.
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