How I Edit a Manuscript

Basically it goes like this.

Notebook round: I write down what’s what and what I need and different world details and plot points in my notebook. I have a lovely set of pens just for this. They give good scratch and it inspires me.

Rough Round One, Fight! I type up my manuscript, chapter by chapter. I used to do it out of order but my scene transitions were always too jarring, so I ditched that bit. I refer to my notes as I type, possibly have to stop occasionally to revisit the notebook round and flesh out new avenues of plotting-ness. And as I type, I edit. Now, I don’t recommend this for anyone because a lot of people get super hung up on every word they type being perfect, and I’m just like, “It’s gonna be good, and I don’t need it to be good right now, because I’ll fix it. So check this lyrical prose, b*****.” So if I don’t like how a sentence flows, I’ll change it mid-scene. But I don’t obsess over it. That way lies madness.

Between this round and the next, I sit for about 2-3 weeks and do other things. Otherwise, I run into problems. Waiting is a good idea, mah peeps.

Don’t Be a Passive Pansy (Check Yourself): I print out my manuscript and go through my entire manuscript with 4 colored pens, looking for passive voice, filter words, basic typos, and any copy-edit mistakes because I’m always gonna stab those to death when I find them, to prevent them from breeding and spreading across my manuscript like demon bunnies. I also go through looking for repetitive information/dialogue tags/actions.

More waiting, my lovelies. 2-3 weeks is a good time period, especially if you’re working on another project or reading a lot of different books.

Don’t Be Racist/Ableist/Sexist/A Douche: after making all my changes from the previous round, I reprint my manuscript and take new pen colors to it, looking for any kind of anything that could be racist, sexist, anti-lgbt+ in any way, or that just doesn’t conform to the religious, racial, cultural, or queer identities of my characters (this usually snags almost all characterization contradictions, so it’s doubly useful). Usually this is only a very small thing. 

For example, in Eidolon there’s a moment where Janine is thinking about a kiss, and it’s not clear that this kiss is supposed to be a chaste and sweet one instead of a passionate teeth-tongues-and-drool kiss, so I underlined that sentence and rewrote it to make it clear that Janine’s not into those kinds of kisses, because she’s ace. Or like, also in Eidolon, I did a Google search on ways to describe a deaf person’s voice and vocal patterns without being offensive, because I’d left a footnote-mark in a certain color of pen where said mentions needed to appear when describing Princess Madeline’s voice.

And yet more waiting. Don’t worry, this keeps you from wanting to chuck your manuscript out the wind because you’re just so dang tired of looking at it.

Taste the Freaking Rainbow Round: the final round of editing before chucking it over to a crit-partner, with a third round of printing (so I’ve used up 2 reams of paper at this point). Basically I’m double-checking for all the things you were looking for before, and also slashing through any excessively overwritten or purple prose, or any prose that due to situation may sound good but ends up being confusing. This is also my last chance to triple-check for repetition, my ultimate foe.

And then I give it over to someone else.

How Long Does It Take to Edit a Book? Part 2

Depends on the book and how much work it needs. I often edit as I write (don’t do this; it works for me because I don’t get hung up trying to find the abso-perfect words, and I don’t get discouraged with putting out mediocre stuff on my first or second or third draft, but a lot of people do, so do not edit as you go unless you’re confident it won’t be a problem). Because I do this, the level of help a manuscript needs will often depend on what sort of state I was in when I wrote it. 

House of Gears needed a lot of work because I was so on fire to push it out, I wrote it in 18 days. That was (at the time) 135,000 words in 18 days. Which meant lots of typos. And other things. Passive voice, filter words. Some of this stuff I didn’t even know to look for. Eidolon needed work because it was written for NaNoWriMo but it didn’t need as much work as Gears because I took more time with it. It really just depends on what needs to be done. And also of course, what non-writing-related demands there are on my time.

How Long Does It Take to Edit a Book? Part 1

Depends on what I need to do, what the problems are, and what it’s like at work, honestly. If there’s low call-volume, I have more time to work between calls. Also, if I have a lot of passive voice (which I do sometimes), that involves a lot of reordering my sentences or sometimes my entire paragraphs to get rid of it. I tend to have repetitive info in each chapter - a holdover from writing fanfiction that only updates every few weeks - so when editing w/ a pen, I have to cross all that out and then delete it later from my docs. 

Like, I don’t edit out of a doc. I edit off a hard-copy of a document, so a big stack of about 400 pages. I’ll go through with colored pens and underline, circle, make notes, cross stuff out. And then I go back to my manuscript doc on my computer, make all those corrections - usually rearranging masses of sentences and possibly adding new scenes, scrapping old ones, enhancing some that are already there, reassigning actions and dialogue between my characters, etc. 

Then I print out another 400 pages, hole-punch them again, stick them in a binder again, sit on it for a few weeks, and then come back to it to edit it all over again. Rinse and repeat until the number of the issues I’ve found have dwindled down to “oh, I just went 30 pages without making any notes, awesome.” Which can take up to 5 or 6, sometimes even 7 printings. Especially because once I get to printing #3 or #4, I’m looking for particular things I notice that keep slipping by me - mostly passive voice, overwriting, and repetition. Those 3 things tend to be my downfall until I get to like, draft 8.

Luckily my mom buys my paper. :D

Results of Professional Critique - Farewell, Roderick

So it was hard, but I scrapped my Eidolon prologue. Why?

Both critiques from the pros said I didn't need it. Fare thee well, Lord Montresor. Alas, poor Roderick. I knew him well, Horatio. Le sigh.

But honestly, I can see the point. My query sells all the peeps on Janine, and then it's like, "Here, let's take a peep at Janine's boyfriend." Oops. >.> Didn't think that one through, I guess.

Actually, I did. I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that prologue. But it wasn't working. So there it goes.

Murder your darlings, mah peeps.

Unless they're actually people, in which case, don't murder them. Seriously.