7 Game-Changing Tips for Editing Your Book

for anyone who finds the editing process overwhelming

Editing a book can feel incredibly daunting, especially if it’s your first time doing it. It’s a long process that requires multiple types of drafts, and it can be confusing figuring out how to approach each of them.

At least, that’s how it was for me when I began the editing process a couple of years ago. Now I’m on the fourth draft of my book, and through lots of trial and error, I’ve been able to find some editing strategies that have worked well for me.

Everyone’s book-writing process looks different, however, so don’t feel like you have to follow everything that I do. But hopefully these editing tips will be a useful starting place for experimentation with your own editing!

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1) Read Through the Previous Draft

One of the biggest tips I have for editing is to read through your previous draft before beginning a new one.

There are multiple reasons for this. The first is that you need to understand what already exists to know what needs to be fixed. The second is that reading it through helps you see how the entire story flows together as a whole.

One of the biggest issues newer writers have is that their book reads like a bunch of short stories. Instead of each chapter flowing seamlessly into the next, the transitions are choppy.

This is because the writing/editing process is a lot slower than the reading process. You’re working on one chapter at a time, so it’s easy to miss how they go together as a whole. Reading the entire draft through without editing it helps you see things the way a reader would and detect big-picture choppiness.

2) Make an Editing Checklist

While I wouldn’t recommend editing your manuscript during your read-through (as it slows it down too much), I would suggest creating an editing checklist as you go.

There are two different editing checklists that I create for each draft. The first is a chapter-by-chapter checklist. These bullet points can range from anything like fixing a chunk of dialogue to changing the way a character reacts to something to altering the entire plot of the chapter. For example, one of my bullet points for the second chapter in my fourth draft is:

• Make the bickering between Kade and Sammie less angry and more teasing. Feels a bit too intense, like they actually hate each other. Want to introduce their relationship as accurately as possible.

It’s nice having an editing checklist for each chapter because it makes it more organized and specific, so it’s easier to implement the fixes.

The second type of checklist is an overall editing checklist. This is for changes that span multiple chapters and tend to be bigger fixes. An example of one of these bullet points for my fourth draft is:

• In the first half of the book, make Skylar’s want more clear (that she wants to just get through the summer and then leave Franklin for good) and make the stakes more clear (this was her last chance at a family).

I won’t lie, though. The overall editing checklist is A LOT harder to do because it’s not as tangible. I know the issue (that the stakes aren’t clear enough), but I don’t know how to fix it. The instructions aren’t as specific as in my chapter checklist. But it’s still helpful to write these bigger issues down, because then I have them in the back of my mind as I edit.

3) Make a Chaptered Outline

Apart from creating your editing checklists, the other thing you can do while reading through your previous draft is make a chaptered outline. To do this, you just write a few bullet points for each chapter that summarize the main things that happen in it.

The biggest benefit of this is that it allows you to see your book from a bird's-eye view. This is incredibly hard to do as a writer, as you tend to become immersed in the smallest details of your story. But it’s very necessary to zoom out.

A chaptered outline is especially helpful before beginning developmental edits, which is where large structural changes need to be made. It allows you to see the structure of the story as a whole, so you can understand what is and isn’t working on a fundamental level.

It also allows you to move the pieces of your story around more easily. You’re working with way fewer words in your outline than in your manuscript, so it makes shuffling things around less messy.

4) Learn About Editing

A few years ago, before I began writing my first book, I was completely clueless about the book-writing process. Sure, I’d written random chapters of stories here and there, but I didn’t know how to actually start and complete an entire novel. It’s why I never tried. It felt too insurmountable and overwhelming.

But then I started learning about how to write a book, and suddenly, it seemed possible.

Educating yourself on the editing process is such a game-changer because it makes you feel more equipped to tackle it. It breaks down what was once a large, looming task and makes it more accessible. And even if you’re not new to the editing process, it’s still good to continuously learn, as you’ll keep picking up on new things that will inspire you and make you a stronger writer.

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I’m always trying to learn more and improve my craft, which is why I’m thrilled to be partnering with Reedsy Learning to share about their upcoming editing conference, Layer by Layer: How to Edit Your Book.

If you’re also in the editing trenches or you want to know more about the process for when you get there, come (virtually) join us on July 19th, from 11am - 3pm EDT!

Here’s what we’ll be getting up to:

11am - 11:45am EDT: What Every Author Should Know About the Editorial Process

• In this first session, we’ll go through how the editorial process works in traditional publishing. We’ll get a breakdown of each stage, from developmental editing to copyediting to proofreading.

12pm-12:45pm EDT: Writing Your Second Draft

• In this workshop, we’ll learn techniques to add to our self-editing toolkit so that starting (and finishing) the second draft feels more doable. No more being intimidated by having to fix the messy first draft!

1:15pm - 2pm EDT: Revise Like an Editor: Live editing with Noah Charney

• While it’s great to learn about editing techniques, it can be hard to know exactly how to apply them. That’s where this session comes into play! Best-selling author Noah Charney will give live feedback on passages submitted by viewers so we can see how an experienced professional would fix them.

2:15pm - 3pm EDT: Say More With Less: Cutting Filler Words and Sharpening Your Language

• This workshop will help us detect filler language that dilutes our writing (guilty!) and poor word choices that obscure what we’re trying to get across. As someone who is struggling through line edits right now, I’ll be locked in for this one.

I’m so excited to spend a Sunday upleveling my editing game and learning from some of the best editors in the industry. I hope to see some of you there! If you’d like to come, use my discount code MALLORY10 for $10 off your ticket.

Sign up for the conference here!

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5) Figure Out Each Draft’s Focus

My next editing tip is to figure out the focus of each draft. This gives the editing process structure and makes it more organized. It also helps you feel like you’re making forward progress rather than just going in circles, changing things that don’t even need to be fixed.

So before starting a new draft, figure out what its focus is going to be. For me, the first draft was to discover the story for myself, the second draft was for big developmental/structural edits, the third draft was for fleshing out my characters, and the fourth draft was for line edits, aka making the book better on a sentence level.

Again, everyone’s process is going to look different, so you don’t need to have the same focuses. But make sure that you know what you’re attempting to improve with each draft so you have some structure.

6) Pay Attention to Pacing

Pacing is such an important part of a story. If it’s too fast, the reader doesn’t have any time to catch their breath. If it’s too slow, you start to bore the reader. Either way, you can lose them. So when editing, pay extra attention to your pacing. This means carving away the excess stuff so that you keep the story moving forward, while also adding in necessary breaks so readers can process things.

Pacing matters on both a large and small scale. There might be whole plot threads that veer too far away from the heart of the story and need to be deleted. Or there could be little things, like clunky sentences, that need to be trimmed down.

In the earlier drafts, you’ll be focused on bigger pacing things (think: story structure). Whereas when you get further along in the editing process, you’ll be focused on the finer details (think: prose).

7) Work On Your Mindset

The last editing tip (which I personally think is the most important) is to work on your mindset. If you don’t have a good mindset surrounding your writing and creativity, you’re never going to be able to finish editing a book.

There are several areas that you need to work on overcoming in order to edit a book.

The first is perfectionism. In the editing process, it’s easy to get caught in a loop of trying to perfect every little detail. But readers aren’t looking for perfection. They just want to get immersed in a good story. So, as the writer, you need to learn to accept “good enough” and move on. Otherwise, you’ll never make progress.

The second mindset shift you need to make is letting go of self-doubt. We’re often the worst critics of our own writing, and your book is probably way better than you think it is. Don’t let your self-doubt make you give up. Keep pushing on even if you think it’s horrible, and give yourself the grace to improve.

The final mindset-related thing to work on is impatience. Editing takes a long time, and you’ll probably want to rush the process just so you can finish it. DON’T do this. Let the book take however long it needs to take. Focus on the process of editing. Enjoy it. As cheesy as it is, writing a book is about the journey, not the destination. Getting too caught up in the destination will only lead to you feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. Be patient with yourself and the story.

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What is one part of your editing process that's been a game-changer? Let us know in the comments!