How To Self-Edit Your Book (A Unique Approach)

  There are a ton of videos, articles, and books about editing your writing... And absolutely none of them worked for me. Being the person I am, if something doesn't work or even feels like it takes too long, I find my own way to do it. This both wastes days of my life that I spend trying to find alternate ways to do things, and makes the process of doing many things more enjoyable and efficient for me.
  So how do you edit a book in a different way? Hasn't everything already been done? Maybe, but I haven't seen it done this way yet!
  I'm also just going to point out, as everyone else does, that apparently this doesn't cover your professional edit... But you know what? I don't have money for a professional edit, I don't even have money to buy a copy of my own book when I get it published! So there may or may not be an upcoming post on what to do if you can't/don't want to get a professional editor!
  Okay, this has been a longer than usual intro, so I'll just get on with the steps...

1. Forget it! 

  The moment you write the last word of your book, you close the page, stick the papers in a drawer, whatever you need to do, and you don't touch it. Don't read it, don't edit it, don't even look at it. 

  This stage is always the hardest for me because I love my book! I want to always be reading, writing, editing, or thinking about my book. But for at least two weeks, but ideally longer, don't look at it. 

  The outline, character sheets, notes, and other parts that aren't a part of the manuscript count as well. You look at them, and you start over... (That's the only way I can convince myself to keep my hands off!) 

  But don't be idle this whole time, start writing the next book! Work on cover art, perfecting the tagline, marketing, whatever you've got to do. That doesn't involve the manuscript or any of the above items. 

  Yes, the cover art and tagline are fine, because it won't have you pointing out all the flaws in your story, worrying about potential plot-holes, or whatever. Editing goes better when you can look at the story through new eyes. 

2. Take Notes

  Now, I have a whole notebook full of this... That much is unnecessary, but I get obsessive. Let's say you made it 2+ weeks, and you're ready to get editing! Before you even look at the manuscript, take at least an hour to think of every problem you might have... Uncharacteristic things your character may have done, melodrama, lack of sensory detail, too much sensory detail, scene changes too much, think of literally every problem you think is a possibility and write it down, before reading a single word you wrote. 

  For me personally, I use this the same way I use the quote "The great thing about being pessimistic is you're always right or pleasantly surprised." Sometimes I find that I was right about that problem, I have a brief moment of triumph that I was correct, and I'm fully prepared to fix it! Other times that problem isn't a problem, and that's one less thing to fix! 

  I've found that if I just read through and look for issues that way, I don't want to delete that scene! Or that uncharacteristic phrase isn't that bad, and it's funny! But if I've preplanned that it's an issue, when I see that it actually is, I'm much more likely to feel attached when I cut that bit out. 

5. Read!

   Finally, you read the book! (Put your notes aside for a second, they'll be used in step 3.) For most people, they wouldn't touch anything now... Just read and take notes. Did you guess that that's not what we're doing? Good, you're correct! You read, not necessarily reading for plotholes or anything, but instead analyzing every chapter and scene. Ask yourself if that scene is really necessary. If it was gone, would the story still make sense? Does that scene move the plot forward? Is it a scene that just accentuates something that's already been established, or does it have its own significant meaning? If the story would still make sense, the scene doesn't move the plot forward, and the scene doesn't have it's own unique value to the story, then kill it. 

  Oh, but it's a super sweet scene that fans are going to cry over! It shows the character growth! Well, it's super sweet but doesn't have unique value? Then make an already important scene a little sweeter. Truth is, the scene can be the sweetest thing ever, but only a select few romance geeks will like it... Most readers will wonder why that couldn't have been more important, if it has any hidden meanings that will be shown later on, etc. It'll just annoy most people, get rid of it or find a way to make it meaningful to the plot! 

4. Back To The Notes!

 Time for the second read through, where you read through with your notes in mind. Edit anything that's in those notes and you were correct about. If you think something isn't quite right and your reading confirms the suspicion, cut it out or edit it. 

  After this, your manuscript may or may not be a little choppy, but that's okay. Edit is fixing, and sometimes fixing means tearing down a wall and building a better one instead of painting over a hole. (Someone always finds the hole!) 

5. Final Scene Cut Stage

  Read one more time, looking for inconsistencies or unnecessary scenes that you may have missed the first few times. Any mistake that's on a chapter or scene scale, go ahead and fix it. Info dumps that need to be smoothed out, plot holes that you need to patch up, anything like that. Remove anything that needs to be removed, and take note of anything that needs to be added. 

  In the first few stages, I try not to add anything, because it's like house remodeling... You tear the walls down before you rebuild, because tearing some down, building some up, and then removing something else both weakens the structure and can make smoothing things out again harder. Remove everything that needs to be removed, find a way to not forget what you want to add, and then move onto the next step. 

6. This Is Where People Call You Crazy

  Now, this is usually where people would go through their book as a whole and rewrite everything that needs to be rewritten. This is where people would call me crazy and tell me this isn't the right way to edit. But you know what? It works! 

  Basically, you have your list of things that need to be added, plot-holes, all that, right? Great. Keep it with you. 

  Start at chapter 1, and edit chapter 1 with the whole plot in mind. Don't add too much information or anything, but make sure it's consistent with what happens later on. 

  Then things get even crazier... We move onto chapter 2 for the same things, right? Wrong! Now we edit chapter 1 with line and word edits until it's perfect. 

  I've found that editing all 100,000 words of my book the same way at the same time drives me insane, I don't have the attention span nor patience for that. I get lazy towards the end, and it sucks. Instead, once I've cut all the scenes out of my book that I don't need to and found my list of plot-holes, I have a pretty good idea of the plot and how it ends. Everything that goes into the story, I've got in my mind. I can edit every chapter to accurately represent the plot, and by the end, I find few if any inconsistencies. 

  So edit chapter 1 to perfection, then move onto chapter 2, and 3, and onwards. 

  Here's what I do for chapter edits: 

• Add anything necessary - If I need to add something, fix something, etc. I do that first. 
• Sentence necessity - Same as scenes, some sentences are redundant. Either combine them with another sentence or delete them. 
• Smooth it out - If anything's clunky, has poor transitions, etc. now's the time to make it flow!
• Word edit - Change recurring words, put a more powerful word in the place of a less powerful one, delete unnecessary words, etc.
• Read - See if it all sounds good, has good grammar, etc. 

See here for a more detailed list of things to look for in each stage! Hopefully, this is helpful for those out there who find editing to be a boring, repetitive process! This method helps add a little more variety! I'd also like to add that if at any point you feel tired, like giving up, like your book sucks, like you just want to stop now, it's okay to take another break. Taking a day or even a few weeks off editing to work on something else won't hurt! Thanks for reading, best of luck with your books! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on any part of the writing process!