Editing, Day One: First Read

Let's assume that you've followed my advice from yesterday and gotten some distance from your first draft (be it Nano-related or not). Or, alternatively, maybe you've got a deadline coming up or perhaps you want to keep striking while the iron is hot and you're hooked on writing.

Whatever the reason, you're ready to start editing.

Just as there are many different ways to prep, outline and to write, there are many different ways to edit. 

I think that your first read depends on how strong you feel your first draft is. I'm going to be using my 2014 Nanonovel as my case study, so we're going to assume that you think your first draft is more like Draft 0 rather than Draft 1 !

So, print that sucker off if you like (I do) or bring it up on the monitor.

Grab some pens and paper or index cards - or bring up a second document on your computer.

What we're going to do first is....

SCENE BREAKDOWN

Whether you outlined or not, odds are that your draft veered off book. 

I want you to read your manuscript and write down some notes about every scene. The goal is to have a document that gives us all the key information about the book you already have - so that you can make notes about what you need to change, add, remove to make your story the best story it can be. Inevitably there will be some scenes that lack purpose or you'll realize that you under-utilised a character or that you dropped a subplot part way and need to shore things up. 

For each scene, you want to know exactly what is happening.

Ideally, you can write a brief sentence describing the action - 

In the town hall, Main Character(MC) accuses Secondary Character One(SC1) of cheating at poker championship, but the argument is interrupted by goblin attack.

This gives the bare bones of the scene, including the goal of the characters, and the conflict.

I'd also add a quick note about important characters who appear in the scene, e.g.:

MC
SC1
Goblin King

And then I'd include any additional thoughts I have as I read. I'm not worried about the quality of the writing at this point, but entirely about the 'big picture' so plot, character and setting.

What I should end up with is a new outline of my novel, one that matches what I have on paper rather than the ideal outline I may or may not have had before I wrote.

If you did follow an outline pretty closely, it's completely fine to start with that and just make the changes to reflect what you do have. 

Take your time getting this part done. This is when you're going to really learn what you have on your hands. You'll find a lot of crap, and, hopefully, some happy surprises. 

Remember - at the end of this process, you want an outline that describes what you have, scene by scene. 

The next step will be identifying the weaknesses and deciding what to do about them, which is exciting because this is when we'll make a map for the big renovations that are going to happen!