NaNoWriMo Ends. Editing Begins!

If you participated in NaNoWriMo 2012 you're a winner! It's the end of the month and you survived with your sanity (more-or-less) intact.

Whatever your word count, this should be a day of celebration. You wrote more than you normally do, you stretched yourself as a writer, and are heading into December with what Jim Butcher called writing momentum. Because I think his advice is fabulous I'm going to include it here even though I posted about it only a few days ago.

Write every day.

Even if you only write a little bit, even if you only write a sentence or a word, write. Because, even if you've just written a word, you're one word closer to the end of the book than you were at the beginning of the day, and that's progress.

Writing is about momentum, so get that momentum, set your time aside every day and stay honest.  (Jim Butcher's Advice For New Writers: Write Every Day)

What The Future Holds: Editing

For those of you who did finish and wrote 50,000 words over the course of November, you rock! But it's not over. You have a first draft. Great! Now put it in a drawer and back away slowwwly.

1. Take A Break

Resist the urge to read your manuscript over. Let it rest. Stephen King usually gives it about six weeks, but do what feels right for you. I think that having at least a week off would be an excellent idea.

Part of the reason for giving yourself a break is so that you'll be able to come back and, to a certain extent, read your story with fresh eyes. Passages you thought blazed with unsurpassed brilliance and creativity will seem less brilliant (after all, you were sleep deprived and over-caffeinated) but parts that you thought hadn't turned out as well as you wanted may strike you as pretty darn good.

2. Read Your Manuscript Through But DO NOT EDIT IT

When you come back to your manuscript read it through once, from beginning to end, but DO NOT EDIT IT.

Because you've gotten some distance from the story you will have forgotten some of its twists and turns. Given that, it would be BAD to make major alterations before you've loaded the story back into your noggin.

I know it's agonizingly hard to read your work without editing it. Or perhaps that's just me. It's like torture. But your restraint will pay off.

By all means, take lots of notes about what you'd like to change, but put them in a different file, or you could even use a paper notebook. I often enjoy the act of writing on a physical page when I'm taking notes.

3. Unleash Your Inner Editor

During NaNoWriMo I've been saying to people, "Take your inner editor, tie her up, and lock her in a closet." Now it's time to let her out (and hope she's not too grumpy). Now you want to think about how other people would read your story.

Here's a rule of thumb: 

Above all else, you want your story to be clear. Remove anything that doesn't serve to push your story forward.

For each element of your story look at it and ask yourself, "Does this need to be here? Would the story be the same without it?" If its absence would leave the story unchanged, be ruthless and cut.

Protagonist's goals: 

Is it clear what your protagonist wants? What their external goal is? For instance, winning the hand of the princess, finding the golden bird, bringing back the lost ark, and so on.

How about your protagonist's inner goal? How do they need to change in order to get what they truly want? For instance, Shrek was lonely, isolated. He wanted friends, but in order to get them he had to change and let people in.

Subplots:

How many subplots do you have? If you want to write an 80,000 word story and this is your first book you could go easy on yourself and have only one, or perhaps two. If you're writing a 40,000 word novella (which I think would be an excellent thing to do!) you wouldn't need any sub-plots. Again, this advice is for new writers, if this isn't your first book you know best what you're comfortable with.

Characters:

If a character doesn't do anything to advance the plot get rid of him. Or perhaps you could combine him/her with another character.

Backstory:

You only want to include what is relevant to the other characters in the novel at the time it's given. Robert Sawyer gave a beautiful example of this. (Robert J. Sawyer: Showing Not Telling)

Best of luck as you continue to work on your novel! Do you have any advice you'd like to pass on?

Here are a few articles about editing:

- Creating Memorable Supporting Characters
- Editing: Make Sure Your Story's Bones Are Strong
- Robert J. Sawyer: Showing Not Telling
- 11 Steps To Edit Your Manuscript. Edit Ruthlessly & Kill Your Darlings
- Check Your Writing For Adverbs And Other Problem Words: MS Word Macros
- How To Find The Right Freelance Editor For You
- Want Help With Editing? Try Free Editing Programs

Photo credit: "The BIG Guy" by VinothChandar under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Why Writers Need Editors

Before we talk about why writers need editors, let's talk about what kind of editors there are.

Every time I read an article that touches on the different specializations in the field of editing I'm amazed by the variety. Contrast this with writers. Are there different sorts of writers? For instance, slow writers, fast writers, reluctant writers, pantsers, plotters, and so on? I suppose the question is silly, but don't you think it's curious that there are at least four different kinds of editors (line, developmental/content, assignment, copy, managing, etc.) but we don't have different kinds of writers? In any case, back to editors and editing.

Alan Rinzler, a developmental editor, writes about the difference between developmental editors and copy editors. These are the two kinds of editors I'll be talking about:

Developmental editors offer specific suggestions about the core intentions and goals of the book, the underlying premise, the story, character development, use of dialogue and sensory description, the polish, narrative voice, pacing, style, language – the craft and literary art of the book.

What developmental editors don’t do is correct spelling and grammar. That’s the job of a copy-editor, who works much later in the publishing process.

An author can recruit a developmental editor even before starting a book, to brainstorm ideas and make a clear plan. After that, they may call upon the editor at any stage from early drafts to final. (What should you expect from a developmental editor?)

Alan has a great post that goes more in-depth into the different phases of writing and why, and exactly when, you get the most out of hiring an editor: When do you need an editor? He sums up his point this way:

A good editor brings to the relationship both literary skills and human sensitivity. An editor watches your back and anticipates when there’s trouble ahead. But the author is the boss, in the driver’s seat. It’s not the editor’s book, so my job is always to enter the creative world of the author and help fulfill this vision.

Let's get back to our question: Why does a writer need an editor? Here we're talking about a developmental editor. It goes without saying that every writer needs a copy editor, someone who will go over your manuscript and check it for grammatical errors, typos, and so on.

A developmental editor can help a writer by giving them an edge. They do this in two ways:

1. An editor can be a constructive collaborator
Objectivity. This is something every writer lacks about her own work. Yes, we know our characters better than anyone, we know the plot, we know the possibilities behind the plot, and so on. We're gods when it comes to our fictional worlds, but what we don't know is how another person is going to respond to our words.

I remember once I wrote a violent scene in which my protagonist got the prize and beat the villain. I thought I had used what I think of as 'fun' violence--the sort of violence you see at the beginning of a James Bond movie, bad-guy-gets-put-in-his-place violence not life-is-harsh violence that makes you want to go home and hug your kids. Fortunately I did send this story out to readers before I published it because, although to me it was fun violence, it didn't come across that way to my readers. I lacked objectivity because I was too close to the material.

Being a constructive collaborator is about far more than being objective, it's also about having someone on hand who can take an impartial look at your work and give you professional non-destructive feedback.  Here's what Alan has to say:

Developmental editors offer specific suggestions about the core intentions and goals of the book, the underlying premise, the story, character development, use of dialogue and sensory description, the polish, narrative voice, pacing, style, language – the craft and literary art of the book.

What developmental editors don’t do is correct spelling and grammar. That’s the job of a copy-editor, who works much later in the publishing process.

An author can recruit a developmental editor even before starting a book, to brainstorm ideas and make a clear plan. After that, they may call upon the editor at any stage from early drafts to final. (What should you expect from a developmental editor?)

2. A good editor has her finger on the pulse of the industry
An editor who is well thought of and in high demand is going to edit a large number of manuscripts. I can't speak about all editors, but I've noticed that many editors will specialize. For instance, some will edit anything except romance, some prefer editing speculative fiction, and so on.

A busy editor who specializes in, say, speculative fiction will be able to give speculative fiction authors a leg up not only by being a constructive collaborator but by giving them the benefit of their vast knowledge of the genre. Additionally, they have current knowledge. The books that are being published today, at least those from traditional publishing houses, have been in the works for a couple of years. A good editor can keep you on top of trends and help make your book more competitive in a very competitive marketplace.

Finding an editor
That said, a good editor can be hard to find. I wrote a post about this a while ago (How To Find The Right Freelance Editor For You) but it's always good advice to ask your friends for references and then Google the name of anyone you're seriously thinking of hiring, check them out at Editors And Predators and get them to edit a sample of your work. At minimum.

If you choose to work with a developmental editor I hope you find someone who is a great fit for you. Remember, the important thing is to keep writing. I hope you're having a wonderful Sunday! Cheers.

Related reading:
- 5 Points To Ponder Before You Self Publish
- How To Find The Right Freelance Editor For You
- How Many Books A Year Should I Write?

I was tempted to put this picture up as the profile image. I decided against it, but couldn't resist sharing it with you.

Which one do you think has an editor?

Photo credit for profile picture: Fanpop
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