Everyone writes. Don’t deny it. Even the weekly grocery list counts in this regard. Seriously. You make your grocery list and what do you do with it before you go to the store? You look it over. Double checking every item. (Or triple checking it if you’re like me. Then leave it at home like an idiot.) You remember something you need. You realize three tubs of ice cream probably aren’t necessary and make it a more advisable two. That is self-editing at its core and it is the most crucial part of the writing process.

I’ve shared my feelings on self-editing previously. It’s no secret I find it extremely painful as a process. But a completely necessary one. Self-editing is the true first step to turning your favorite Buffy fan-fiction into a dynamite draft ready to be seen by others. Not publication (HECK NO) but a step closer. And it’s because self-editing forces you to look at your work like a professional.

Those that can see the flaws and find solutions to them are the ones ready for primetime. Defending your first draft, riddled with typos and logic problems will not help you succeed. It will hold you back. It did for me for a long time.

How did I learn to cope with self-editing?

I developed a system. The same way every writer should. For EVERYTHING. Plotting. Drafting. And especially Editing.

With a first draft I do a cursory spell check, cursing at Word for wasting my time. Then I print the bugger off and tuck it in a three-ring binder. I used to just paper clip sections of the behemoth – not a smart way to go – so I have to thank Joanna Penn for the binder idea. From there I start my first readthrough.

First readthroughs are scary. You’ve spent months putting your draft together and aren’t quite ready to pull it apart yet. You gloss over grating details and choppy sentences because you KNOW they work. Except they don’t and you hover over them for a full minute (more like ten) trying to figure out what the hell you were talking about.

Highlight it. Underline it. Question it.

Question Everything.

That’s the key. Question everything. Setting. Staging. Movement. Motivation. Dialogue. Dialogue tags even. If questions come up for you, even small ones, they will definitely come up for your readers.

Note funky sentences, poor transitions, generic descriptions of locations and characters you probably haven’t thought enough about yet. Most importantly take your time with it.

Once the first readthrough is done I go through everything and make my changes. Easy ones first. Changes that require a major overhaul or solving a logic problem I typically highlight for a second pass. It gives me time to think about the best approach depending on the situation and doesn’t hold me up from other corrections.

Circle back to your highlights when the answers are clear. You may have broken more than you fixed but solving the fundamentals of your draft, the logic of your story is critical to moving forward with the next pass (or three).

Save constantly and under a new filename. For every draft. And keep the physical copy of that first draft. You will not regret this.

A second set of eyes

For a second full pass through the manuscript I use AutoCrit, a handy tool I will be talking about in detail on Monday. I upload the revised draft into their system and run every report imaginable to clean up my prose. I would be lost without this tool and it really helps me catch overused words and other silly things I should be able to realize on my own. (I’m getting better at it, dammit.) It also keeps me from passing it off to my wife to clean up. I’m sure she appreciates the reprieve.

Three is a magic number.

The third readthrough occurs on the computer. Sometimes I print it out and work it the same as the first. It depends on how confident I am about the draft. Sometimes it takes four or five or twelve passes but by this time I’ve typically hacked the crap out of myself and am working on the nitpicky (yet still incredibly important) parts of the narrative.

Was Soriya injured on her right side or left? Did Loren shave today? Who is holding a gun and who has the ice cream cone? (Two ice cream references? I should probably eat before I write these posts…)

Once again, it all comes down to questions. Never be afraid to ask them and never back away from every potential answer. If something is holding you back from passing the draft off to your beta readers there is a reason behind it. You may destroy that “perfect” first draft, that heavenly vision you held in your mind for your book but it will make it stronger in the end.

That’s how you take your writing to the next level.

Thanks for reading.