Once upon a time… I thought that finishing a novel was a lofty and almost unreachable goal, but then I finally reached the end of my 75,000 word work of heartbreaking genius (well, it perhaps wasn’t genius, but not too bad). Then I asked myself the inevitable question: Now what?

Because not only did I want to complete a novel length work, but I want it to make sense and be a good enough story to publish. I let it sit for a few weeks and did other writing projects and then I sat down and sketched out how I envisioned the editing process to go.

Step One: Break the novel into manageable chunks to edit. I decided to go at 50 page units of the approximately 3oo page novel.

Step Two: Print a hard copy to work from and back up the file. I have realized that for me, when I am having trouble with a particular scene, nothing beats writing longhand. Having a piece of paper in my hand just feels right, so I decided that to properly edit the novel I need it hard copy.

Step Three: While editing, make small corrections immediately and rewrite sentences and make different word choices, but just note bigger problems with a letter in the manuscript. Have a note page next to you and write down the corresponding letter and what the problem is. For instance: (A) Scene is written from the wrong Point of View (POV) and slows things down too much – rewrite.

Step Four: Cut out all exposition that you can and try and relay the information that was cut in a more direct way. Upon rereading the finished novel I realized just how clunky exposition could be. I further realized that almost everything explained in exposition could be played out in action and dialogue.

Step Five: Consider the first fifty pages as the most important you will ever write. Do your utmost to make these initial pages the best you can make them.

In my case, I wrote these early pages a long time ago and they are probably the weakest in the whole story. I did not have a well developed outline when I started the novel and I did not know my characters all that well (Something I learned from, by the way.) It kind of makes me want to say, “You know, if I was writing this all over again I’d do it this way…”  And the thing is, I can write it all over again, and probably the first fifty pages deserve the kind of understanding of the story and characters I had developed by the last fifty pages.

The Bottom Line: Editing may be the toughest part of writing, and editing is what makes good writing, great writing. Take your time and give your editing as much thought and attention as you did the initial writing.