“…the biggest barrier to releasing quality material is probably impatience. You have a work that feels pretty good; you’re exhausted; you want to move on; you might be a bit delusional about how good it really is; so you hit publish. Nobody steps in and tells you to make it better, to do another pass, to get a better cover, to write a better blurb, to hire or trade for some editing, to beg or trade for some beta reading. You simply jump the gun.” Hugh Howey in his blogpost What do Self-Published Authors Need?

When I finished my first book Answering Annaveta (Russia to Canada Trilogy Book 1), I was amazed at how much it helped to go through rewrites, beta readers and then have an editor take a look a the manuscript. Rewrites and editing made the book so much better than it was.

I think the real writing began, when I began rewrites.

So I’m starting the process of rewrites and editing again. This time for Book #2 in the series. I finished the first draft at the end of March and since then I’ve been letting the manuscript rest.

Stephen King in his very helpful book On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft, says to rest the manuscript for a while, so put it away after you’ve done all you can. Well, I decided to let it rest before I did rewrites and I’ll do that again after the edits are finished.

So what is all involved in rewriting and editing your book?

How does the editing and rewriting cycle work?

After you’ve breezed through the first draft as fast as you can, which is generally the best way to write the first draft, it’s time for rewriting.

Why as writers, do we rewrite and edit our work? It’s simple really. If the book is good, then people will enjoy the read and recommend it to others and the cycle will continue. If the books not good, then people will react with bad reviews and the book will stall.

The best way to ensure that your book is a quality read is to use beta readers, editors and proofreaders. You should edit your book until you can’t stand it any longer.

A book I’ve found helpful as I do much of my own self-editing, is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King. They give detailed tips on how to make your book, the best it can be before you put it out there into the world.

You do need another set of eyes on your book, who will give you an honest critique. If you can afford a professional editor, that’s even better, but if not than at the very least ask some beta readers or be part of a critique group. You’ll find the more ideas and advice on what could be changed or tweaked in your book, the better. This applies to both fiction and non-fiction books.

Here’s my own 7 step process of rewriting and editing

1. Rewrite and redraft. Repeat this until you can’t do it anymore. For most writers, the first draft is just the bare bones of your completed manuscript. Often no one will even see this first draft.  You can’t edit a blank page, so get the draft written quickly. Once the words are down, you can improve on them. Once the first draft is done, I print the whole thing out and read through and put notes in the margins as I go. I scribble and cross out and change words. I mark what words I repeat a lot. This is also where I write down new scenes that need writing, or where there are problems with characters, etc. This first read-through takes awhile. Then I go back and start a big rewrite based on all the changes I would like to make. After you’ve rewritten it a few times, you can also edit on kindle for the word choices you want to make. I put all the changes I’ve made back into Scrivener which is my absolute favourite writing and publishing tool.
2. Structural Edit. This is especially important if this is the first book in a series. I did this with my first book and even though it was tough to make all the changes, it was worth it in the end. This usually involves changing some scenes and possibly deleting scenes that don’t fit with the overall picture of where the book is heading. A big picture edit like this covers things like plot, dialogue, redundancy, setting and characters. Sometimes you even need to change the opening scene so it helps to make the premise of your book more powerful.
3. Revisions. After you have a structural edit, there are usually a bunch of things that need to be changed to make your story flow better. This might take awhile…. but keep the end goal in mind. At the end you’ll have an amazing book you can be proud of.
4. Beta Readers. Beta readers are a trusted group of friends, other authors or even family who will evaluate your book from a reader’s perspective. You should only give them the book to read if you’re at the point where you’re happy with it yourself, otherwise you’re not valuing their time. I like to handpick who will be beta readers. Hopefully a few of them will love the genre you’re writing in, because they’ll love to read it and will also have extra tips on what they like to read in that genre. Something that I do, is when more than one beta readers say to make changes on a certain scene or character or plot line, then I make the change.
5. Line Edits. This is about word choice, grammar and sentence structure. When I had my book edited, she automatically did line edits as well as proofread the manuscript after I had made all the changes. It hurts as a writer, to have almost every sentence, something changed, but editing does make your book stronger.
6. Revisions. There will be more changes based on the feedback from beta readers and if you get a line editing done. This can sometimes feel like a complete rewrite and takes a lot of time to check every sentence. Sometimes the rewriting and revision process can take just as long as writing the actual book. An important thing to remember is that it’s your book and you don’t have to change everything they suggest. So have a critical eye as to the suggested changes.
7. Proofreading. This is a read through for minor typos and possibly some spelling mistakes. But by this point your book is almost ready to be published. This won’t take very long, but it is still important. And readers will thank you for have as few errors in the book as possible.

So that’s it. The next step of course is to publish your book. Which is quite a easy process on Scrivener. I’ll write something about that in another post.

What was the hardest part of rewriting and editing for your first book? I’d love to hear your thoughts on editing in the comments below. We can learn from each other 😉