Hello, my pretties!
We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about writing your manuscript—building a routine and trudging through Act 2. Maybe you’re still there, working through the muddy middle. But soon, even if you’re not there yet, you’re going to reach the point where you write “The End”—so for the sake of this week’s letter, let’s imagine you've finished your draft.
Firstly, congratulations. Truly. That's an achievement most aspiring writers never reach. Those of you who are publishing veterans should take a moment to celebrate too. Do you remember how you felt when you finished that first draft of your first book? The relief? The pride?
But the fun has only just begun.
Enter a dark shadow who will loom over your work like an avenging angel for possible months, if not years, to come. Now comes the part that separates hobbyists from professionals: revision.
Editing your work is essential to the success of your novel. For all writers, this process begins with yourself. Most trad authors do a round of editing on their own before sending it to their publishers, and many indie authors hire an editor once the self-edit is done. Even if you employ AI tools to help, nothing can beat a human edit.
Self-editing is a skill, and like all skills, it can be learned. But it requires something counterintuitive. You need to see your own work as if someone else wrote it.
That's harder than it sounds. You know what you meant to say. You remember the brilliant scene you imagined. Your brain helpfully fills in gaps and smooths over rough patches because it already knows the story.
Breaking through that familiarity is the first challenge of self-editing.
Create Distance
The single most useful editing technique is also the simplest: Put the manuscript away.
I know. You're eager to fix things. You've been staring at problems for weeks, and you want to solve them. But give yourself at least two weeks away from the manuscript. A month is better. Work on something else. Read books in your genre. Live your life.
When you return, you'll see your work with fresh eyes. Sentences that seemed fine will reveal their awkwardness. Plot holes you glossed over will become obvious. You'll notice repetition, pacing issues, and moments where you told instead of showed.
Distance is your editing superpower. Use it.
Read Like a Reader
Your first pass through the manuscript should be as a reader, not as an editor.
Don't stop to fix things. Don't rework any sentences or change the order of any scenes. Just read, as quickly as you can manage, experiencing the story the way a reader would.
Pay attention to where you get bored. Notice where you skim. Register when you're confused or when something pulls you out of the story. These are your problem areas.
This read-through gives you a map of what needs work before you start making changes.
Structural Editing Comes First
Once you finally pick up your red pen, keep your focus on big-picture changes first. Many writers make the mistake of polishing sentences before addressing structural problems. This is like rearranging furniture on a sinking ship.
Structural editing asks the big questions. Does the story work? Is the pacing right? Are the characters consistent? Does the plot make sense? Is the emotional arc satisfying? These questions need to be answered before you decide whether your character should laugh, chortle, or giggle.
If a chapter needs to be cut entirely, there's no point perfecting its prose.
I use my outline from the drafting phase here. I look at each chapter and ask what it accomplishes. If a chapter doesn't move the plot forward, deepen character, or increase tension, it might need to go.
This is painful. You'll cut scenes you love. But the book will be better for it.
Line Editing and Polishing
Once the structure is solid, you can zoom in on sentences.
Look for your personal tics. Every writer has them. Maybe you overuse certain words. Maybe your characters sigh too often. Maybe you start too many sentences the same way …
Read dialogue aloud. Does it sound like actual speech? Does each character have a distinct voice? Are there lines you could cut without losing meaning?
Check your pacing at the sentence level. Are you varying sentence length? Does the rhythm match the emotion of the scene? Action scenes should feel fast. Intimate moments can be allowed to breathe.
This is not about spotting typos and punctuation mistakes, though you will find them, too. This is about finesse and about polishing your masterpiece word by word until it shines. Have you used the best verbs to convey both action and feeling? Could you rephrase a sentence to make it more poignant? Does anything jar or pull you, the reader, out of the story? If so, now is the time to fix it.
Know When to Stop
I’ll make an important caveat here: Self-editing can become endless. There's always another pass you could do, another improvement you could make. There is such a thing as over-editing, and it often happens when you’ve read your book so many times that you’ve become numb to how it will actually sound to a reader.
At some point, you have to stop. The manuscript will never be perfect. It just needs to be ready for the next stage of the process. That means you've addressed the structural issues you can see. The prose is clean, and the story is clear.
Once you've done what you can do alone, the next step will be getting outside eyes on your work. But that's a conversation for another day.
Reflection Exercise
Before stepping into self-editing, consider the following questions honestly:
- How much time do I typically give myself between drafting and editing?
- What are my known writing tics or habits?
- Am I more likely to over-edit or under-edit?
- What would "ready for feedback" look like for this manuscript?
Use your answers to help direct you while you’re editing and to determine when your draft is ready to be seen by someone new.
Reality Check-In
I finished my draft last week: sixty-two thousand words. A complete Romance novel from meet-cute to happily ever after.
I celebrated for exactly one evening before the urge to edit kicked in. I wanted to dive back in immediately, fix all the problems I could already see, and make it better right now.
Instead, I closed the file. I'm giving myself three weeks away before I touch it again. In the meantime, I'm reading Romance novels, taking notes on pacing and structure, and letting my brain rest.
This waiting feels uncomfortable. I want to be doing something. But I've learned the hard way that premature editing leads to endless revision cycles.
Distance first. Then editing. The book will still be there when I'm ready to see it clearly.
Happy writing,
Susan
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