8/14/2019 12 Tips for Editing Your Fiction

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12 Tips for Editing Your Fiction and Making it Great

All writers want to be considered a good writer, and this requires editing. Just look back at anemail you dashed off in haste and you will likely wince at something. Editing encompasses manylevels of intensity from basic proofreading to substantial reworking and rewriting. To produceprofessional and effective fiction, the editing of the manuscript will go far beyond merelyproofreading.Whether a short story or novel is being submitted to a publisher or headed for self publishing, itneeds to be thoroughly edited and assessed from many angles. Of course, a manuscript needs tobe free of spelling errors and grammatical gaffes, but that is just basic, like a car needing tires.Editing strives to create flow with smooth transitions, maintain clarity, cut out unnecessaryrepetition, and includes a variety of tiny to huge adjustments that make the difference between ablock of stone and (hopefully) Michelangelos David.Editing is commonly believed to best be done by a competent person other than the writer.However, many writers do not have the luxury of an editor who is available to polish work for anaudience. For example, you may be trying to break into fiction markets with short stories and youdo not have an editor to help you submit your very best work to get noticed. This means you needto do it yourself.

Although the critical eye of another is great, any writer should be able to switch gears and look athis or her work from the editing perspective instead of the writing perspective. However, a writeris often emotionally attached to a work and reluctant to approach the creation with the attitude ofan over demanding, never-satisfied father. Overcoming the protective impulse to cling to anoriginal draft as divinely-driven art will serve any writer well.

You should approach editing as another and enjoyable part of writing. You will enjoy making yourwork better, sometimes much better. While editing, you will learn about how you write and you willsee what you are good at and what you need to fix.

For example, I often find when editing my initial drafts that I flopped through three sentences tosay one thing. Usually I can harvest the good bits from each sentence and then combine them

into one strong sentence. To do this, I weigh the nuances of each sentence and judge whether Iam actually giving out good details or repeating myself needlessly.

Having spent many years writing and editing my fiction, I have developed a checklist that keepsme on track and trains me to be judgmental of my own work. I apply most or all of the questionson this checklist to every chapter I write during the editing process.

Fiction Editing Checklist

1. Is it bad? Be honest. Do you like what you wrote? Can you imagine others liking it? Youreally must be able to say yes to this fundamental question before being satisfied.

2. What is the lead like? Good, bad, indifferent? By lead, I mean how does the chapter or

short story start? Does it arouse interest or excitement? Don't let an otherwise great storystart like assembly instructions for an entertainment center.

3. What is the action like? With this question, I analyze what is happening in the story. Firstof all, is anything happening? Do not let the narrative feel like being stuck in a traffic jam(unless the action is being stuck in a traffic jam). This is a very subjective question for thewriter/editor. Basically, you need to decide if events are moving the story andthereby maintaining the interest of the reader.

8/14/2019 12 Tips for Editing Your Fiction

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4. Are you having a good mix of dialogue, narrative, and action? I use this question to avoidstringing together 80 lines of dialogue. Too much he said and she said in a row does notsuit narrative fiction. Non-dialogue elements about the characters, setting, and actionneed to be mixed with dialogue in order to build the word pictures necessary for fiction.

5. Are you moving the plot along or are you fooling around? It's easy as a writer to startenjoying your characters and exploring tangents or minute details of their lives. Some ofthis might be essential to story and character development, but do not let narrativewanderings dilute a story until it is about as interesting as waiting for your number at theDMV.

6. Do the actions of the characters make sense? Readers need to understand or at leasthave some clues as to why a character does or says something. Characters are often likechess pieces. They can only move in certain ways. Essentially, I am cautioning againstmaking a character do something just because the writer needs that thing done. It mustcome down to would the character do that and, if so, under what circumstances?

7. Do you think the plot twists and turns are acceptable? Do they appear contrived? Youwant a natural flow.

8. Are you appealing to the senses? Does imagery occur often enough to build a setting?

9. Are you watching for places in the story that drag? Can you think of a way to pick it up?Does the dragging portion need to be cut? Or is a pause from the action necessary?

10. Is the dialogue necessary or should it be replaced with narrative? Sometimes you dont

need to write out mundane conversation with quoted character dialogue. Sometimes itsmuch better and efficient to simply write narrative such as: Becky asked her dad whenher mom would be home. He said he didnt know.

11. Does the dialogue match the character for language skills, vocabulary, intelligence,emotion and knowledge? For example, if a character is an illiterate, the person will notsuddenly start speaking with the vocabulary of an English professor. The character may

have something incredibly wise to say, but the character must say it as the characterwould say it.

12. Can the reader identify with the characters in any way? Does anything ring true?

After analyzing and editing your work with the above questions, you have surely improved yourwriting. The last thing on my checklist is to tell yourself that you did a good job. Remember, thegoal is for you to be your toughest critic and for all other critics to love you.