My top 5 tips for editing that first draft

Editing is where your story really comes together. How much editing you need to do all depends on how you draft your story and what your creative process looks like. There is not a one size fits all when it comes to editing but these my top tips, that work really well for me when editing.

1. My first tip is also the first thing in my editing process and that is leaving the story to rest. This is not unique to me and I know of lots of other authors who recommend this. The idea behind letting the story rest is to give you time to detach from it and return with fresh eyes to your manuscript. When you have spent so long writing something it can get hard to see what parts need work because you are so close to it. I recommend leaving your first draft alone for at least a week but a bit more time will really allow you to come back to your story with fresh eyes. I am just now coming back to edit the first draft of my latest book. I have left it to rest for a month and I really do feel like I am coming back to it with a fresh perspective. In the time you leave a book to rest you can be working on a different book idea, or be working on building up your author platform. I have spent this time outlining a new book idea and I started this youtube channel. I think having my mind focused on other projects has also added to me being able to look at my first draft with fresh eyes.
2. When doing your first round of edit’s don’t get bogged down on the small details. Instead focus more on the big picture of your story. This includes, story structure, pacing issues and character development. Dealing with the big picture issues first means you don’t waste time perfecting scenes that end up axed. You could spend a long time perfecting a scene, working on sentence structure, removing repetitive language etc. to only end up deleting it all because it messes up the story pacing or it throws off your structure. These finer details still need to be addressed but I recommend waiting to deal with them until you are happy you have a solid story structure, your plot points are all in the right place and you character arcs are well developed.
3. Which leads to my third point don’t be afraid to delete scenes or even whole chapters. While you’re looking at the big picture of your story you may find there are sections that need big rewrites, scenes that need to happen in a different order or that just don’t belong in the story. It can be hard to delete our darlings especially when we worked so hard on all these scenes but if you find that a scene is slowing the pacing, isn’t progressing the story or pushing character growth it’s got to go. Something that helped me to take the leap to deleting scenes was at the start of making edits I saved the document as a new file. So, if I decided I just need that deleted scene back it still existed. But guess what I never did need those scenes back because they were deleted for a reason.
4. Make a list of the edits you need to do and check them off as you go. Editing can seem like this monumental task and it can seem like your not making much progress when you can’t track your progress by simply looking at your word count like when your are writing that first draft. When editing you may be adding to the word count but you will also be deducting from it. To break the process down into smaller manageable chunks I will make notes from my first read through and compile a list of what work I need to do on my manuscript. I will work on each point from my list separately and every time I cross a task off my list I can see the progress I have made.
5. My final tip is to take your time. Do not rush the process, this is not a race. Really take the time to analyse your story’s structure and plot. Make sure your characters have a proper arc. They need to grow as people. Also make sure the stakes your characters face is real and there is an actual consequence for if they don’t achieve their goal. You can’t address all these things if you rush through your edits in a day. Often it will take multiple rounds of edits to address everything you need to. Also allow yourself a break. Like a day or two between rounds of edits.

And here’s a bonus tip read books about writing. Craft books will help you improve your writing. It’s the very reason they exist

So these are my top 5 tips for editing that first draft. If you have any tips I haven’t mentioned that work really well for you when editing drop them in the comments below. Now I’m off to carry on editing my own first draft. Happy editing!