The Editing Process: Tips and Tricks and Where to Start

I want to preface this by saying the title gives the impression that I know what I'm talking about — and don't get me wrong — in terms of experience, I definitely do know what I'm talking about in terms of editing blog posts and shorter form content. However, I don't necessarily have the most experience with longer form writing and editing, such as novels. So, this post is generalised editing tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way. As I have said, these suggestions do seem to lean towards favouring blog posts or shorter form content, but it doesn't mean to say that those tips and tricks cannot be applied elsewhere. As always, I hope to write in a way that means that you can take what you find interesting or need to use, and leave what does not.

Start big

My first piece of advice would be to start big. By now, you will have completed the first draft of whatever you are writing, and you will need to first scan through what you have written. Does it look like you were expecting? Do you feel that you have covered all the points that you wanted to make? Does the text flow? Does it have enough detail? Are the sections, chapters, and headings in the right order? These are the kind of questions that you need to start asking yourself, because at the moment the core text could be brilliant, but it's about working your way from the outside in. Once you have the thoughts or sections organised correctly, then it helps organise your thought process during the editing — making it easier for yourself.

To put this into perspective, I quite often write in stream-of-consciousness. So, the text that you're reading now might not have been written in chronological order. It could just be whatever my mind is focusing on; that does mean that during the editing process. I need to break down these massive chunks of texts, and make sure that my thoughts flow.

At first glance, is there anything that needs changing?

This then naturally leads onto my next point of questioning whether there is anything glaringly obvious that you want to change. For example, have you accidentally missed a bullet point from your plan? Is there an anecdote that could be useful for you to include? You essentially want to go back and make sure that your ideas are articulated in the way you are expecting. At this point of the drafting process, you are simply focusing on making sure the words are on the page. You may not realise something as simple as breaking up a very large paragraph, or the fact that you haven't articulated your ideas in as much detail as you thought you had. I sometimes realise, for example, that I haven't actually stuck to one point; I sometimes drift into three or four points within the same paragraph. Admittedly, some of that is intentional — if ideas are linked and therefore I need readers to consider them as two separate ideas that are connected. But again, that is all part of the editing process, to consider how the work is presented and how you would like the reading to be received. Once you have the blocks of text organised, and potentially trimmed at this point, you then would be best going through any obvious spelling errors that you can see; anywhere you noticed you may need to expand on later.

If you need to rewrite something, leave the bad paragraph just above, and then write a polished version just underneath. Try writing the new paragraph in a different colour, f that helpsyour brain. I find that, even if you are rewriting something into a piece of text that you know will be better, it is really useful as a writer to realise how much you have managed to change even a small piece of writing.

Start going in really small

Here, you can start going really small. You’ve had a look through any obvious grammar errors or expanding on anywhere that you immediately thought needs more depth. Now, you can then start looking at inserting any missing punctuation, which can come along with perhaps more complex spelling errors. I find this extremely useful because it allows you to further reflect on the pacing and the overall development. Punctuation really is key in any text. You'll understand that without punctuation the text is unreadable and not very pleasant. For example, if I published a wall of text with absolutely no formatting or punctuation, you would find yourself trying to decipher what I mean. The punctuation actually guides you into the tone and the thought process behind what either the narrator or the writer is trying to show you. Another very literal example is, if we ask “when are we eating, Sally?”, but then we ask “when are we eating Sally?”, the tone shifts completely. I know, for example, before I even start editing a piece, that I tend to favour longer sentences that are descriptive and compounding on a sentiment. I do definitely appreciate a shorter sentence, and they definitely do have their place, but when I think about using a shorter sentence, I end up overusing them and it becomes a bit stilted. However, this is really where you can ‘kill your darlings’. Do you really need this sentence? Could this be said in a different way? If you get rid of this sentence, is it going to completely shift the perspective of the piece? 

This kind of thought process definitely happens at all stages of the editing process, because you're constantly thinking about whether the messages that you expecting to convey have actually come across — or whether it's going to be received positively or negatively by readers. Ultimately, you are still trying to maintain your own voice and your own thoughts.

Strive for perfection

Perfection does not exist, but we need to strive for it with editing. There are rules, but in order to break the rules, you need to know what the rules are, and the intention behind breaking the rules. If we go back to what I discussed earlier in regards to preferring longer sentences and being able to use that to compound different ideas together, I know that — technically speaking — we are only supposed to use two commas before needing to end the sentence. However, at the same time, if I want to stretch a thought or I just want to express my conversational writing style, then my sentences are going to be structured more like dialogue. Besides, like I was saying, we need to know the rules to know when and how to break them. That way, it becomes a mutual understanding between the writer and the reader.

Sometimes, done is better than nothing 

I say this because I do have the tendency to edit until I have no idea what words are anymore. Yes, we want a piece of writing to be perfect — and be as good as it possibly can be. But then the crux of writing is communication, and the crux of communication is making sure the correct ideas and messages are conveyed. If that has been done, then good is better than not done. But then again, I am going to play my own devil’s advocate by saying that we must do our best to be perfect when we are writing to convey exactly what we mean, because humans are not mind readers. They need to be fed the ideas to be able to receive them. We can only do that accurately if we write with precision.