Self-Editing: Where to Start.

Hi all, Happy Monday! 

So you have a finished manuscript. It’s over 100,000 words (if a novel). Probably over a hundred pages, and it feels great. Or maybe sad. I’m always sad when a story ends. I haven’t figured out if that’s because my endings just don’t work or if I just love the world I created too much. (Anyone else?) 

What’s next? Most articles and books I’ve read recommend walking away and working on something else for a little bit. I don’t think they meant a break lasting at least a year, maybe two or three. But now that we’ve taken a break, where do we start with the story? Since my break was so long, I did reread the manuscript first. This might be a great place to start depending on how long of a break you take from it.

I bought Self Editing for Fiction Writers (SEFW) by Renni Browne and Dave King, the second edition. I had no idea to start, and the articles I read online were helpful but didn’t help me create a plan. And since I really got into plotting with my Paracosm world, I realized I didn’t have a plan or conscious plotline in Sillmanite. 

So SEFW actually helped me structure how I wanted to review each scene. Each chapter would be the focus of a review of the manuscript. That’s probably a lengthy editing process, but I wanted to walk through it slowly and critically.

My lack of planning in Sillmanite became increasingly evident when I started with the first chapter of SEFW and worked through each scene. For example, the first chapter talks about balancing dialogue and narration. Since Sillmanite is a fantasy novel, there will be some narration. But how do I know when there is too much in a scene? Does the dialogue move the scene, or does that need to change? 

I had way too many questions and too few answers to the questions as I went back and looked at my first scene with a critical eye. Also, my first scene is a preface to a prologue to the actual story. Which seemed like a great idea when I started writing the story. Now it feels weird, and I don’t like how it starts. The prologue is also three short scenes to build the worldview. They’re decent scenes on their own, but it makes for a confusing start. 

Now I’m working through the narrative parts of the scenes; I’m also using it to help build an outline for the novel. It’s easier for me to mark up the motive and conflict in a scene to know where it stands. 

If you free write, where do you start when editing? If you plan and outline, where do you begin with editing?