Every creative person, including authors, deals with an internal critic. Children's book writer and editor Heidi Fiedler shares five ways we can continue being creative even when our inner editor is trying to get the upper hand.

We all have that voice in our heads, the one that says, “Careful now. That probably won’t work. We need to get it perfect. Perfect means no one can criticize you. Perfect means safe. So maybe you should just wait to write until you know you can get it perfect. Maybe you’ll be ready in twenty years? Maybe then you’ll finally be able to get it right.”

Our inner editors can be incredibly harsh.

And they know exactly how to get us to slow down, play it safe, and generally get in our own way.

Five years ago, I was working as an editor in a publishing house, rushing to add to the hundreds of books I had already worked on. The end goal was always the same: publishing perfection. It was unrealistic corporate nonsense, but that was the goal.

And as an editor, I didn’t just hear the voice, I was the voice. I rushed writers, nagged them to clarify their thoughts before they were ready, and made sure we cleaned up any messiness that developed in the creative process.

Today I’m happy to report I’m an independent writer and editor. I work from home. I decide what’s successful. And I try to be a generous boss to myself.

I've traded in the culture of perfectionism for a process that allows me to experiment, make and mend mistakes, and create something original. The work I do is more playful. It's more creative. And it's more personal. I pour my heart into it.

Along the way, I’ve developed a few practices that help me get creative and quiet my inner editor. I’m sharing them here today with the hope that they will help you too!

1. Dance Around the Document

When you start a new project, try working outside the document as long as you can. That might mean making loose notes in a notebook devoted to the project. I like to call my pre-writing notebook a Nebula Notebook, because it reminds me to stay dreamy and open to drifting through a field of ideas.

You might dictate notes into a voice recording app. You could even make thumbnail sketches to remind you what happens in each scene.

If you’ve already written a draft, try printing out the manuscript and only making notes at the end of each chapter, rather than making notes line by line or in the margins. It will help you stay focused on the big-picture elements. And when you review your notes, jumping from section to section, you’ll make connections you wouldn’t have made if you were treating the margins of your manuscript as a to-do list.

The point is to wait as long as possible to start typing, because once you’re in the document, it’s too tempting to start cutting and pasting, tinkering with a word, and generally letting your inner editor get bossy.

2. Journal

If you’re feeling stuck, try journaling about what you want your book to be about. Imagine writing a letter to a sympathetic friend, or write about what you hope readers will love about your book one day.

Your inner editor will feel content knowing you’re making progress and organizing your thoughts, but you will still feel free to try different directions and experiment with loose ideas.

3. Travel

Try doing your writing work in one place, and saving your revising for another location. When you need to read through a draft or work on a tricky passage, try working in your car or somewhere that feels casual and fresh.

Don’t try to do your most creative work in the same place that you do your tightening and polishing. It’s too easy for your brain to think it’s time to go into editor mode.

4. Track Something New

If your inner editor is convinced you need to write 500 words every day or you’re not making progress, try tracking how much time you spend writing rather than how many words you put down on the page.

Or if you’ve been tracking time, try tracking milestones like finishing a draft, submitting to your agent, or getting a critique.

You could even keep it super simple and just track how many days in a row you think about the piece you’re working on. Make yourself a little calendar or a worksheet, so you can fill in some bubbles or give yourself some gold-star stickers. The trick is to help your inner editor visualize all the progress that’s being made.

5. Give Yourself Permission Not to Know

Inner editors love to act like if you would just listen to them, the next draft would be complete, and you could check this enormous task off your list.

Remind yourself that everyone struggles with writing, even editors! Don’t feel like you have to make all the revisions in one draft.

[Note from Joanna: For more on dealing with your internal critic and getting your writing out into the world, check out my book The Successful Author Mindset.]

Give yourself permission to not know how to fix a problem. Let it take time. Expect to meander. You can totally confuse your inner editor by challenging yourself to write something weird and unproductive. You just might surprise yourself with a poetic little gem. And like everyone else, inner editors tend to relax if you remind them the goal is “progress not perfection.”

How do you quiet the voice of your inner editor? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Writer and editor Heidi Fiedler has worked on more than 300 books. Whether it’s a poetic picture book, a zippy chapter book, or a kid-friendly take on the physics of time travel, her books are quirky, playful, highly visual, and often philosophical. Learn more about Heidi, her books, and the classes she teaches at helloheidifiedler.com or say hello on Instagram @heidifiedler.

Editing a novel can be a daunting task, but there are some tips that will help you, as Sofia Ashdown shares with us today.

Other than correcting spelling and grammar mistakes, it can be difficult to decide how to focus your energy in the right places to improve your manuscript.

In this article, there are ten tips to help hone your focus and provide some actionable steps to knock your novel into shape.

1. Identify theme or message

What drove you to commit to writing a book? What is the purpose of your story? What is the truth you are trying to share with the world?

These might seem like big, broad questions, but the answers provide the invisible backdrop to your book. If you aren’t entirely sure what the theme or purpose of your story is, then it’s likely that your reader won’t be either.

Understanding the story’s core will provide a lens in which to view your characters and scenes during the developmental editing stage.

Don’t be frightened by this step; ‘theme’ doesn’t have to mean a ‘moral’ or something uniquely profound. It can be as simple as ‘justice and vengeance are two sides of the same coin’ or ‘the bonds of family and friends are ultimately the only things worth pursuing.’

Maybe you want to explore an emotion such as rage, or the consequences of acting on unconscious beliefs. Whatever the theme, ensure your book as a whole answers the question you implicitly proposed in the beginning. Talking of beginnings…

2. Focus on the beginning

The first line sets the tone for the rest of your book. Rework it. Test out alternatives. Make sure it hooks the reader into your unique world and shows them what to expect.

As an example, compare the draft version of 1984’s opening line:
‘It was a cold day in early April, and a million radios were striking thirteen.’

With the version that went to print:
‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’

Can you see how a small tweak makes such a dramatic impact? Remember what I said about implicitly proposing a question to be answered by the end of the book?

In one short line, Orwell has managed to convey something fundamentally wrong with the world he is about to plunge the reader into, and by the end of 1984, we understand what that is.

One of my favorite sayings is: ‘the end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end.’ Review your beginnings and ends to see how well they tie together.

3. Identify core conflict and reveal it through action

You had big plans for your book and there’s so much in your head to somehow make real on paper. Trying to cram everything you want to say into the story will slow it down and choke the plot.

Keep in mind your theme or core message as you examine each scene, highlighting the crucial plot elements and gearing your efforts to revealing it through the actions, reactions and thoughts of your characters. Cut away anything that is weighing the plot down or isn’t pushing your protagonist to grow and adapt.

4. Avoid head hopping

Pick a point of view and stick with it. New writers tend to forget who is narrating each scene, chopping and changing between characters. This is known as ‘head hopping’ and can be very distracting, and usually means that the writer hasn’t decided who the reader should care about most.

The key is consistency – if you want to be an ‘omniscient narrator’ abide by your own rules. It’s usually a better idea to stick to either first person or third person limited, which means writing from one character’s viewpoint per scene or chapter.

That’s not to say you can’t have multiple points-of-view throughout the book, however, just be clear and consistent.

Another common mistake is to describe something happening when the character in question couldn’t see it from their point of view. For example, John is gazing out of the window when Jane walks into the office, yet he knows she is blonde before he even looks at her. Glitches like this destroy credibility.

5. Seed the background to your characters’ fatal flaws

No one is perfect, not even fictional characters. Having said that, the flaws they have should make sense and should be seeded throughout the book.

That goes for the antagonists too. There’s nothing more disappointing than when a bad guy fails against the hero because of some sudden, previously unknown flaw. Every thought, action, and reaction must be informed by your characters’ personal history and beliefs.

6. Give your characters quirks

Humans are complicated creatures and although your characters aren’t actually real (well, not in this universe) the reader needs to empathize with them as if they were flesh and blood. To do this, make your characters distinct from each other, with their own quirks and foibles.

Think about:

• Mannerisms
• Style of dress
• Physical imperfections
• Props (e.g., Indiana Jones’s whip)
• Nervous tics
• Unconscious habits such as whistling or pen clicking

7. Vary descriptions using other senses

People tend to favor one sense over the other, and for most of us, that’s the visual processing system. Writers are no different! But neglecting smell, touch, taste, and sound can flatten scenes. [Note from Joanna: for tips on writing using the 5 senses and beyond, check out this recent post.]

Consider how these different types of smell can have such a dramatic impact on your environment, comfort levels, and memories:

• Perfume
• Body odor
• Freshly cut grass
• Decay and death
• Floral smells
• Cleaning fluid
• Animal smells

Think about the emotions these scents and odors would trigger in your characters. Can you see how broadening your range of descriptive devices can increase the reality of your settings?

8. Cut clichés

Clichés are so last y—century. Every word, phrase, and sentence should have an impact, but clichés dull the effect because readers have become numb to these hackneyed expressions.

The only exception to this is within dialogue; clichés can reveal the mindset and cultural background of your characters. Don’t overdo it though.

9. Maddening multiple metaphors

Metaphors are wonderful and add richness to your writing, but it’s easy to mix them together and lose the precise meaning – or use more than one in the same paragraph.

If this happens often, you’re probably trying to describe too much. Pick the essential point of the scene or paragraph and focus on that and cut the rest.

10. Keep raising the stakes

Conflict is at the heart of storytelling. No one wants to read a story where literally everything is perfect and nothing ever happens. What would be the point?

Make sure you vary the stakes at key plot points to maintain the reader’s interest and keep your characters challenged enough to grow and develop.

However, starting out with extremely high stakes in order to hook a reader in can backfire because everything that happens afterward can feel like an anti-climax. Pace yourself and turn up the dial of conflict as your plot develops to reach a satisfying conclusion.

After implementing the steps outlined above, your book should have an intriguing opening, a fast-moving, compelling plot, believable characterization, and enriching descriptions.

That’s not to say that you will have picked up on every issue within your manuscript. Objectively is very difficult when you are emotionally invested in your own work. Which leads me to your bonus tip:

Stop editing. Let someone else do it!

There’s only so much you can do alone. For those on a tight budget, this might mean handing your book to a trusted beta reader. For others, sending it to a professional editor is their best bet.

[Note from Joanna: for a curated list of book editors, click here.]

At the very least, by taking the time to really analyze your work, you’ll learn more about your unique writing style and develop a greater awareness of your own quirks and foibles. That can only be a good thing.

Will you apply these tips when editing your next novel? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Sofia Ashdown is the author of the Descendants of Thor Trilogy and Urban Fairy Tales, and a freelance editor specialising in fantasy, YA and New Adult fiction. She is currently studying for her MA in Creative Writing and busily plotting her next novel. Learn more about her author journey at www.theinkyfeather.com and her editing services at Editing For Indie Authors.

If you want to learn more about self-editing, sign-up for a free, 3-day course delivered straight to your inbox.

[Rabbit photo courtesy Sandy Millar and Unsplash.]

I love the editing part of the writing process. It's incredibly satisfying to take a somewhat messy manuscript and turn it into something that someone else might want to read – and hopefully, enjoy.

After self-editing, I always use a professional editor, but it's always best to do the most you can yourself before hiring someone else to help you to the next stage.

In today's article, Sarah Kolb-Williams, author of How to Hire an Editor, explains how to take your editing as far as you can by yourself. 

Let’s face it: editing can be expensive.

For many authors, even just one round of professional editing can be hard to justify. And I get that. No one should put themselves at financial risk over editing a book.

But readers still expect books that look and feel professional. What happens if editing just isn’t in the cards for yours?

Whether or not you’re hiring an editor, someone’s got to check all those boxes—and if your main source of editing is self-directed, you’re the one who’ll be rolling up your sleeves and getting it done.

In this article, I’ll go over 10 self-editing steps any author can take to help boost their revisions, many of them straight from a professional editor’s toolkit. While a self-edit is no replacement for a professional copyedit, these tips should help get you some of the way there.

Even if you are hiring an editor, you might be surprised at how far you can take your own manuscript first. Focus your revisions where you’re most comfortable; any editorial heavy lifting you can do on your own will help your editor focus on what you need the most.

And if your budget just doesn’t include room for the professional editing you want, these 10 self-editing steps will help you fake a pro edit.

1. Put the manuscript away

In my experience, the single biggest problem standing in the way of successful self-editing is this:
Authors are simply too close to their own writing to see it objectively.

Even at our most attentive, after working for so long on one thing, repetitions, omissions, and contradictions can be hard to notice. And after reading and revising and copy-and-pasting a million times, even the most glaring of errors can slip right by you like Obi-Wan at a costume party.

So how can you clear up those blind spots that hamper your self-editing? How can you Jedi-mind-trick yourself into seeing your own manuscript as clearly as a new reader would?

It’s simple: give yourself time to clear your mind before jumping back into your book. Your readers will thank you for it.

It’s almost hard to believe something so simple can be so effective, but it can. As authors, giving ourselves this much-needed mental space before returning to our manuscripts with fresh eyes is an effective way to trick ourselves into looking past what we think we wrote and seeing what’s actually there.

Of course, just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. But as tempting as it may be to plow right ahead after finishing the first draft, try to wait at least a week. Without this time to reset, you may have trouble seeing what’s really on the page.

2. Make an outline

Whether you write romance, science fiction, self-help, or how-tos, an outline can and will help you avoid catastrophe.

You don’t have to make one of those Roman numeral things you learned in school. The important thing is writing down the main ideas in each section of the book, then looking carefully at how they relate (or don’t) to those around them.

Why bother? You want readers to reach the end of your book with a feeling of satisfaction, not lingering questions about what happened to the coworker who dropped out of the cast somewhere in chapter 3, or why chapter 6 references sections that don’t exist.

I like to write my main ideas on small pieces of paper and rearrange them on my desk to see how they fit together; adopt whatever method works for you. But without at least going through the motions of making an outline, you run the risk of forgetting where you’re going, having to backtrack, and failing to clean up after yourself.

3. Make a style sheet

If keeping a running list of words and terms in your book sounds like your worst nightmare, that’s fine; many authors don’t, and they get along just fine without it. But a style sheet plays a crucial role in copyediting, and if you’re into that kind of thing, it can play an important role in your revisions as well.

Editing isn’t just about correctness; it’s also about consistency, and a good style sheet helps keep documents internally consistent. Just like your outline, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

Divide a sheet of paper into a grid and alphabetize the cells, or simply open a new Word document, and bam—you have yourself a style sheet!

(You may have built a “Story Bible,” a guide to all the twists and turns and characters and relationships in your WIP. Think of your style guide as the copyeditor’s version of that document: it keeps important information available for future reference, by you or anyone else involved in your book.)

Write down everything you think might be worth keeping track of, and you’ll have a nice little resource to help you keep your spelling consistent.

4. Read your manuscript aloud

This is another simple trick where the difference is hard to imagine if you haven’t tried it yourself. But oh, what a difference it makes.

Reading your writing aloud can have a crucial effect on the flow of your writing. (I may not be able to tell when an author has read their manuscript aloud—but I can absolutely tell when they have not.)

This isn’t about the audience, and it isn’t about the feedback. Even if you’re performing for an empty house, reading aloud forces you to slow down so your mouth can’t gloss over anything your eyes might miss.

And wait—there’s more. Reading aloud lets you listen to the cadence of your words, which is its own valuable form of feedback. If you find yourself stumbling over sentences or stopping to breathe in awkward places, you can address the problem now by breaking long sentences into smaller, more manageable pieces.

5. Note the notable words

This is a serious copyeditor’s secret: train yourself to be hyperaware of each individual word and how it works in the sentence, without focusing on story-level concerns. (It’s hard at first, but you’ll get the hang of it eventually!)

With your style sheet and dictionary at the ready, carefully go through the whole manuscript, word by word. As you go, write down anything you come across that might come up again, looking up anything you didn’t invent yourself.

Your style sheet might include the following:

• People, cities, and other proper nouns
• Anything you made up or altered the spelling of
• Words that can be spelled in different ways
• Compound words (open, closed, or hyphenated?)
• Anything else you want to keep track of

And just because spell-checker doesn’t flag something doesn’t mean you’re automatically in the clear. Pay extra attention to homophones—words that sound the same but are spelled differently—and make sure you’re using the right one in each case.

What about words with more than one accepted spelling? Which is “correct”? Check your dictionary! (For me, in the US, that’s Merriam-Webster; a quick internet search should help you find yours.)

If all else fails, here’s the simple, editor-approved option: pick the version you like best, put it in your style sheet, and use it every time.

6. Colons and semicolons

Colons and semicolons have a reputation for being showy or flowery, but I think they’re powerful pieces of punctuation when used sparingly (and correctly).

There are lots of nuances here, but here’s a quick guide to each mark.

A colon is used after a complete thought to introduce new information: a list, a thought, a question, or another complete thought (known as an “independent clause”—one that can stand alone as its own complete sentence).

Note that whatever happens after the colon, the clause before the colon should be a complete (or independent) thought, as in the bolded portion above. That’s why something like “The cupboard is filled with: crackers, peanut butter, and flour” wouldn’t work.

A semicolon is used to join two complete thoughts together; they imply a stronger relationship between independent clauses than a simple period would.

To test whether a semicolon is the right choice, try changing it to a period. If two complete sentences would work, but you want to show how the second part explains or relates directly to the first, a semicolon is what you’re looking for.

Now you know! Go forth and punctuate. May the syntax be with you.

7. Keep your dashes straight

There are three kinds of dashes: hyphen ( – ), en dash ( – ), and em dash ( — ). They may be confusing at first, but once you know what you’re doing, you can leverage all the nuance and meaning these tiny marks can pack.

(Not seeing a difference? Try changing fonts. Times New Roman is a good option.)

While the Chicago Manual of Style—the editorial resource for US copyeditors—devotes many worthy pages to the subject, here’s a quick crash course on dashes and how to use them.

(Of course, while this guide will get you some of the way there, there are special uses, exceptions, and contingencies that are way outside the scope of this blog post. If you’re interested in digging deeper, the “Hyphens and Dashes” section of CMOS chapter 6 or the comparable section of your own style guide is the rabbit hole you’re looking for.)

Hyphens connect words.

Hyphens are the dashes used in most compound adjectives that come before the noun they modify (“brand-new car,” “eagle-eyed observer”) and many compound nouns (“light-year”). When in doubt, check your dictionary; you’ll find many compound word listed, along with spaces and hyphens.

Hyphens are also used in double names. The name “Jean-Luc” gets a hyphen. My surname, “Kolb-Williams,” gets one as well.

Em dashes connect clauses.

Hyphens are to words what em dashes are to clauses. Em dashes can be used like semicolons, colons, commas, or even parentheses, making them some of the most versatile pieces of punctuation in non-formal writing.

(And, like colons and semicolons, they can be easy to overdo. If you know you’re an—ahem—enthusiastic em dasher, keep an eye out for excessive dashes and revise accordingly.)

Em dashes are also used, especially in fiction, to indicate interruptions:

“Look, just let me—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. Nothing he could say would change her mind.

Note that in some parts of the world, including the UK, spaced en dashes are used in place of the em dashes described here. Check the publishing style guide for your industry for updated guidelines.
En dashes are the wild cards.

In the US, en dashes are a little more specialized than hyphens and em dashes. These are their major uses:

En dashes can stand for “to” in ranges: “the Seattle–Vancouver line,” “8:00–12:30.” (Note that the sense of “from” is wrapped up in the en dash as well, so no need to type it out.)

And, in the case of compound words, they can act like slightly stronger hyphens, pulling more than just the two adjoining words into the relationship: “progressive rock–inspired jazz,” “post–World War II economy.”

8. Keep the abbreviations tucked away

I’m not saying abbreviations don’t have their uses. But these awkward-looking words can feel a little jarring when we come across them, especially in fiction, and Chicago agrees they should generally be kept out of regular text.

And it’s not just because they don’t look as nice. Instead of easily converting words into meaning, now readers have to take the extra step of replacing abbreviations with words. This is easy enough for abbreviations like “etc.” but takes slightly more work for those that bear no resemblance to their English counterparts (like “e.g.” and “i.e.”).

Instead, for a smoother read, try keeping those abbreviations set off in parenthesis and footnotes (places that function as asides from the main text) and rephrase the rest: “and so on,” “for example,” or “in other words.”

Abbreviations serve a purpose, and they’re nothing readers can’t handle. But if the goal is to eliminate unnecessary speed bumps, look at abbreviations as opportunities to rephrase in a more interesting way.

9. Write out your numbers

Digits, too, have their uses. But when they’re sprinkled into a sea of words—most of which consist of groups of characters—they can stand out.

Need proof? Scan the following sentences with your eyes:

• She collected 4 carrots, 5 apples, and 11 monkeys.
• He produced twelve pens, one paperclip, and three notebooks.

If one of these sentences doesn’t stick out over the other to you, it’s only because you’re determined to prove me wrong. (Probably because of a deep-seated attachment to a different style guide. It’s okay. We can still be friends.)

In fact, many style guides recommend spelling out more numbers than you might expect. Chicago, for example, recommends spelling whole numbers from 1 to 100 in pretty much any nontechnical context you can think of: “three in the morning,” “fifteen students,” “thirty-seven motorcycles.”

Not all numbers work well as words. Spelling out a number like “1,298,525” would be patently ridiculous, and decimals and fractions are a different story entirely. But for your nice, plain numbers, your twos and fifties and eleven hundreds, use words.

10. Collect feedback from beta readers

This final point may not strictly qualify as a self-editing step—but it can help you gain tons of new perspective, which will help you focus your own revisions even further.

When you think there’s nothing else you can possibly squeeze out of your revisions, send it to your beta readers and give them a chance to weigh in. You may be surprised how much they come up with that you’ve never even considered.

Of course, your beta readers might not care about dashes, semicolons, compound words, or any of the other self-editing steps I’ve outlined here. That’s a good thing: depending on their background and experience, your beta readers will have their own diverse set of observations to bring to the table.

You don’t have to listen to every suggestion you receive; this is informal feedback from your friends and family. It’s not a professional editorial assessment, and it’s still your book. That said, if two or three of your readers suggest the same fix or are stuck on the same issue, seriously consider how you might prevent future readers from getting hung up in the same places.

The best thing beta readers can offer is a new perspective—a real one, no Jedi-mind-tricking required. And their feedback could be just what you need to step back and see your manuscript’s potential in exciting new ways.

Have you applied some of these editing hacks to your manuscripts? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Sarah Kolb-Williams is an editor, author, and serial comma enthusiast from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her book, How to Hire an Editor, helps independent authors find the right editing and make informed decisions about their manuscripts.

In 2019, Sarah will be launching an e-learning center for authors, editors, and freelancers. Sign up now for early access and other exclusive opportunities at kolbwilliams.com/writers-gone-rogue.

[Hammock image courtesy Arshad Pooloo and Unsplash. Neon numbers image courtesy Karolina Szczur and Unsplash.]

Editing can take your manuscript from being a pile of words into a story that can move people or a non-fiction book that can change lives. 

It really is the secret weapon to making your book the best it can be.

I've been working with professional editors since my first book, and I continue to invest in editing to ensure my finished product is a high standard, and to keep improving my craft. 

In today's article, Zara Altair outlines the three stages of manuscript editing.

Editing your book manuscript can intimidate authors. As a creative, the idea of checking for tiny errors seems tedious and alarming.

Approach editing with a perspective that aims to make your story the best it can be and arrange the editing process into manageable chunks. You’ll discover editing is a skill you can learn to make your story ready to go out into the world.

The three stages of manuscript editing lead you through a progressive journey to creating the best book to offer your readers.

Why edit?

With all the heart and soul and long hours you’ve put into your manuscript, it’s not perfect. No manuscript is perfect. Accept that and know editing will make your book better.

The storyline will work with no gaps or confusing scenes. The prose will be fluid and readable. And, grammar nazis won’t toss your book aside because there’s a misplaced comma on page 197 and a misspelt character name on page 251.

Each editorial process addresses separate issues of the story.

1. Content edit. The big story picture.
2. Line edit. The language you use.
3. Copy edit. Grammar, spelling, and syntax.

Each phase of editing addresses different aspects of your manuscript and they work in sequence. There’s no point editing for commas and typos if your story needs rewriting and additional plot points.

Editing makes reading your book a joy for readers because they aren’t tripped up by story gaps, clunky writing, or grammar mistakes. Editing won’t make your book perfect, but it will make it the best it can be to create an enthusiastic reader.

Authors who take the time to go through the three phases end up with a polished manuscript.

Another set of eyes

A professional editor will read your manuscript with an objective eye. The editor’s job is to make your book the best it can be. To benefit from the objective overview put artistic feelings aside and focus on the recommendations.

Hiring an editor is an investment that costs money. You can reduce those costs by first working through the three editing steps yourself. Every change you make saves the editor time and saves you money. But, the biggest benefit is learning how to think critically about your story and the manuscript.

As you work through the three phases, you’ll have a better understanding of how each process works and why editorial input will enrich your manuscript.

How to start editing your manuscript

Creating a critical mindset is the first step in the editing process. As an editor, you will examine every part of your story to make it seamless and engaging from the first sentence to the last.

You need to establish a distance to apply your critical eye to your novel. You can build your critical distance with a few steps.

• Put your manuscript away for at least a week. Several weeks are even better. You’ll want to apply fresh eyes to your story.

• In the meantime, read for excellence in your genre. Pick three writers you consider masters of your genre and then choose what you consider each writer’s best work. While your novel is set away, read each of these three books while practicing your critical approach. You already know these stories, so practice being an editor for your favorite professional author. Make notes. What improvements would you make? What are the writer’s strengths?

• After rereading these works, without looking at your manuscript, make a list of the ways you would like to improve your story and your writing based on the positive discoveries you’ve made in your reading.

When you take off time from your own story and practice critically examining other stories in your genre, you get your mind in gear to examine your own story with the same critical distance.

Gather your notes, take a deep breath, and pull out your novel manuscript. You’ll work through the editing process from the big picture down to the tiniest details.

1. Content editing

As you prepare to reread your story after your break and critical exercises, plan on making changes. As wonderful as your story is, you can make it better. Your aim is to make your novel as professional as possible.

You’ll be going through your story at least three times. The first pass at editing focuses on the story elements. There’ll be time enough for details like punctuation, spelling, and grammar after you make your changes.

The story editing, often called the content or development edit, looks at your story structure, character arcs, dialogue, and scene sequence. Keep asking yourself, does this work in the story?

You’ve just read three great novels in your genre, compare your story to these examples. Know those professional authors, went through this same process before they sent their manuscript off to their professional editor.

Print out your manuscript formatted for lots of white space — wide margins, double-spaced. You will hold it in your hands, make marks, and read it as a book. You’ll be entering “track changes” in your word processing software later.

Now you will use your personal editor’s blue pencil. Yours may be red or purple or green or any color that shows up against the black print.

Some authors use different colors for different editorial changes — grammar and spelling, character arc, plot, scene changes. If this is your first time editing, pick a contrast color like red and start reading your story. You can refine your system later as you become familiar with the editing process.

Structure questions:

In this first editorial read, you’ll be scrutinizing your story. If you find smaller issues like grammar or spelling mark them knowing they may disappear as you rewrite. Be looking for ways to make your story sharp and crisp.

Does the first page hook you? Does it plunge you into the story? Does it clearly reflect the genre? Do your protagonist’s words and actions introduce his or her character?

Notice pacing like chapters or scenes that rush the story or get bogged down with detail or long descriptions.

Does each scene move the story forward? If not, mark it for improvement.

Does the story have a clear three-act structure? (or another form of structure that leads the reader through a book to a satisfactory conclusion).

Is your protagonist confused and thwarted in the first part of Act 2? Does she take the reins after the midpoint? Once the story reaches the climax, does it take too long to wind down?

Is the story predictable? How could you improve the twists, turns, and reversals to challenge your protagonist?

Do two characters have names that start with the same letter? If so, find a new name for one character.

[Note from Joanna: I have made this mistake! Another tip is to make sure the character names sound different when spoken aloud as your book may turn into an audiobook. ]

If your story feels overpopulated, combine two characters with similar motivations to keep your reader from being confused.

Do your subplots integrate with the overall story? Are they spaced throughout the storyline?

Is the voice consistent throughout the story? Is one passage in a different tone?

Do you need to research a location or an object to give it more punch?

Does each character speak in a recognizable voice? Would your reader know who is speaking by the way the character speaks? Does the dialogue reflect subtext rather than always being on point?

Is the point of view consistent throughout? Is each scene told from only one point of view? If your story is told from multiple points of view, is it clear who is “speaking” in each scene?

Content editing can be a long process.

But it's well worth going through your story looking for every way you can tighten your manuscript to give your reader the best experience in your genre.

If you have concerns about elements of your story, this is a good time to find a content/developmental editor. Many writers hire a developmental editor at the story outline stage before they have a completed manuscript. Starting with a sound story structure speeds up writing time.

[Note from Joanna: Check out my tutorial on how to find and work with a professional editor. ]

Before you go to the next stage of editing, rewrite your story making the changes you noted during your critical editorial reading. Take as long as necessary to make your changes. Remember you are doing the hard work of becoming a professional writer.

2. Line Editing (Language)

Once you’ve made your story changes, it’s time to look at the language you use to convey your story. Now you are looking to refine the language in the text.

You are not looking so much for mistakes as the best way to structure your sentences and paragraphs to improve the readability.

You want the language to be fluid, clear, and pleasurable for your reader.

Language questions:

• Are your words precise rather than general? Have you avoided clichés?
• Do you repeatedly use the same words or sentences?
• Are there run-on sentences? Sentence fragments?
• Is the same information repeated more than once?
• Does the tone shift?
• Is the phrasing natural?
• Is the language bland causing readers to skip a passage?
• Do you use strong verbs rather than describing an action with adverbs?

After you read through to line edit your manuscript, you can use software tools to help you with your language editing. Hemingway app helps you with sentence structure to make your writing bold and clear to improve your story’s readability.

Grammarly examines text for several writing style elements including readability, grammar, clichés, diction, and dialogue.

[Note from Joanna: I have a tutorial on how to use Grammarly here. ]

The Line Edit phase is challenging for authors because it’s easy to miss how your phrases sound. A good line editor has no emotional attachment to your manuscript and sees your writing style from an objective standpoint.

Getting a line editor will improve the overall tone and readability of your story.

Other people/ beta readers

Once you have performed your content and line editing, is a good time to get feedback from other people. This is an extra step in the editorial journey but worth the time.

It is easy to get lost in your own story. Feedback from other people who read in your genre can help you spot content and language gaps you may miss.

If you are a member of a writing group, you can present your new passages for feedback and comments from members of the group.

This is a good time to get beta readers involved in your story. These are non-professionals who read in your genre and will give you honest feedback about your story.

You want these readers to share anything that gives them pause while reading your story from a passage that isn’t clear to a typo.

[Note from Joanna: Be careful about involving too many other voices. YOUR voice is the most important in your project, so beware of ‘writing by committee' which might just drown your voice out. ]

3. Proofreading

This final editing process takes a fine eye for detail. You’ll want to do this in small batches because it is easy to overlook details if you spend hours working through the manuscript. You’ll be looking for consistency as well as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax.

The Chicago Manual of Style is one option for guidelines around proofreading and editing your manuscript.

What to look out for:

Double check spelling, grammar, and sentence construction (syntax).

Make sure your usage is consistent. Throughout your book hyphenation, numbers, capitalization, and fonts appear in the same manner.

Check for ambiguous statements or incorrect facts. Remember how you checked your research during the line edit?

Internal consistency. Is your blonde always blonde? Does your stutterer lose his stutter? Is your setting consistent when it shows up in various places in the story?

Mark your printed copy and then go to your writing software to make changes. The search and replace function will help you spot every use of a word to make it consistent throughout your manuscript.

It’s next to impossible to find every error. This is especially true because your mind plays tricks and you see what you think is right.

A copy editor has never seen your work before. Every sentence, comma, and character name is new. They bring an objective, professional view of text that is new to them.

One last check. Read your book aloud.

However diligent you are throughout your editing process, hearing your story read aloud can help you find awkward sentences, repeated words, and typographical errors.

You have several options to help you listen to your story. Text to Speech Reader has a Chrome extension that will read your text. Natural Reader provides several voices so you can hear your text read by male and female voices with different tones and inflections.

Open your manuscript so you can make edits as you listen.

From writer to professional author

Taking the time to edit your novel before you send it out sets you apart as a writer who approaches the publishing process as a professional. Every step in the editing process refines your story to appeal to your target readers. They are the readers who love your story and become your fans.

As excited as you are to get your story out there, taking the time to go through the editing process not only improves your story, it gives you a better understanding of what it takes to make yourself a professional.

Keep in mind that best-selling authors take these self-editing steps and then work with a professional editor to find the spots they missed. Publishing houses will always assign a professional editor to your book.

Using professional book editing services works in the same way as beta readers but with a trained professional focus to give your book the best readability and flow.

If you are serious about your writing career, hiring an editor for each of the three stages of the editing process is a satisfying investment in your author career.

Just as you create story, characters, and worlds the professional editor has an eye for your story, your language, and the tiny details. Think of it as merged energy between you and your editor to create a professional manuscript.

All editors are not created equal.

Every genre has tropes that meet reader expectations. Find an editor who is familiar with your genre. A Regency romance will have different story and language parameters than a techno-thriller. You can start your search for the right editor at The Creative Penn editor resource page.

What's your book editing process like? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Zara Altair writes traditional mysteries set in Ostrogoth, Italy when murder was not a crime. A mystery lover since childhood, she has written about writing for a number of publications, including ProWritingAid and International Thriller Writer, and is a member of Sisters in Crime. She writes about mystery writing at Write Time.

Follow her mystery writing tips on YouTube. Zara lives in Beaverton, OR, where she reads, walks among trees, and practices Italian cooking. Find her on Twitter @ZaraAltair

[Laptop photo courtesy rawpixel and Unsplash.]

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:15:52 — 61.6MB)

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When you're writing a book, you will reach a point where you can't stand the manuscript anymore. You need expert help to turn it into a quality book, especially when you're starting out.

Professional editors can help transform your book, and I continue to use them with my books as I think personal feedback is the best way to learn. In today's interview, I talk to Natasa Lekic from New York Book Editors about her tips for editing and how you can find the right editor for your book.

In the intro, I mention Amazon launching support for Arabic books on the Kindle, The Guardian reports on the ALCS findings that author earning have dropped to under £10,500 per year, and Jane Friedman's (excellent) response to the survey.

I talk about my personal story of synchronicity in Mallorca (pics on Instagram.com/jfpennauthor), ConvertKit changes its name to Seva [for more, check out this Smart Passive Income podcast interview about it] and my thoughts on how we all rebrand and change over time. Click here for my tutorials on building your website and email list. Plus, the truth about traffic and feeding the beast – my thoughts on Yaro Starak's podcast on the truth about traffic and why it's also true for authors. 

Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, where you can get free ebook formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Get your free Author Marketing Guide at www.draft2digital.com/penn

Natasa Lekic is the Founder of New York Book Editors, which matches writers with experienced, vetted, professional editors. She previously worked in publishing and also co-founded an animated story platform for kids.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes

• What editors do

• How the changes in the traditional publishing industry have changed the landscape for editors as well

• Matching authors with editors

• The issue of vulnerability for authors who receive feedback from an editor

• Why working with a good editor is the fastest way to progress as a writer

• How to know when your manuscript is ready to send to an editor

• Thinking about our readership while we’re writing

• Painting your vision of your future as an author-entrepreneur

• Balancing creativity and ambition

You can find Natasa Lekic at NewYorkBookEditors.com [my affiliate link if you want to use it is www.TheCreativePenn.com/nybe ] and on Twitter @NYBookEditors. You can also click here for a list of other book editors I recommend.

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