Three Phases of Developmental Editing Novels

Writing a novel is hard; editing it can be even harder. After weeks, months, or even years of writing, you need to give the writer a vacation and invite your editor to the computer — but where do you start and how do you do it?

It’s not actually possible to condense novel editing into three steps, but you can break it into three phases to give you a starting point and make each step more manageable. With my clients and my own books, I break novel editing into these three phrases:

1. Characters
2. Plot
3. Fiction-Writing Techniques

 

Characters

It doesn’t matter how interesting and unique your plot is if the characters aren’t engaging. You can blow up buildings, create new worlds, and introduce as many twists as you want, but none of these will work without good characters.

So how do you edit your characters? Look for and answer these questions:

• Where do I see my main characters’ goals and motivations expressed? One (if not both) of them should be revealed soon after introducing your characters.
• How many goals and motivations do my characters have? Each character needs to start with at least two (personal/professional; internal/external; short-term/long-term), and those need to change throughout the story. There’s not a set number, but you should see these goals and motivations change as the character changes.
• Can you see your characters’ arcs? Your main character(s) should change throughout the story. If she starts as a stuck-up genius, how will she end up? If he’s a shy jock, how will he change? Your characters must change throughout the story.
• Are your characters behaving consistently? They need to behave consistently in three ways: according to their background, according to their goals/motivations, and according to their arcs. Main characters should not react the same way to the same situation at the beginning and end of your novel.

 

Plot

Once your characters are falling into line, it’s time to look at the plot. (If you’re writing literary fiction, this isn’t quite as important as you’ll focus more on theme.) Your plot needs structure, whether you’re writing three or four acts or using the “save the cat” method. As the three-act structure is so widely known, I’ll reference it here, but the same technique can be applied.

• What’s your inciting incident/initial plot point? This can’t be an everyday occurrence. Going to work happens daily, so it’s not story worthy. Going to work and having a car break down in the rain on the day your main character has a presentation can be that incident.
• Did you establish normal? It’s important to take time to show readers what your characters’ lives are like when the story starts so they understand what changes and how it affects the characters when you get into the second act.
• Is there a decision/event that moves the character into the second act? How do you know if you have that decision/event? After this event, your character’s normal life is interrupted. Frodo goes to Mordor. Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy. Things will never be the same.
• Do things get worse? Throughout the second act, you want to put more and more obstacles in front of your characters.
• Is there a life-changing decision/event? Frodo puts the ring on instead of throwing it into the fires of Mount Doom; he ends up crippled for the rest of his life. Elizabeth won’t tell Lady Catherine that she’ll reject Mr. Darcy; that gives Mr. Darcy the courage to propose again. Without this second decision/event, there wouldn’t be a new normal.
• Is there a satisfying conclusion (including tying up loose ends)? You don’t need a happily ever after (unless you’re writing romance), but the ending does need to meet your genre and reader expectations.

 

Fiction-Writing Techniques

Only after you’ve strengthened your characters and plot is it time to focus on your fiction-writing techniques (again, because it won’t matter how well you write if the story bores the reader). At this point, it’s a good idea to create a checklist to go over to make sure you’ve checked each element. Your must-edit items include:

• Point of view
• Verb tense
• Big telling (info dumps)
• Little telling (aka weasel or telling words)
• Setting
• Dialogue
• Purple Prose
• Pacing

By separating your novel’s developmental edits into these three phases, you can take an overwhelming task and break it into smaller, easier-to-attack steps that will help you work your way through that first round of editing.

 

 

Karin Beery is an award-winning author and editor with experience in traditional and self-publishing, freelance editing, and editing for publishers. She is an active member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Christian Authors Network, and the Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network. Karin’s specialty is substantive fiction editing with an emphasis in romance and women’s fiction.