A lot of writers love first drafts; ideas flow, that wordcount goes up and up, and new worlds come into being at their fingertips. Me, I’m more of a rewriter, and I think that’s for very good reason. First drafts are essential, of course, for creating the bones of a story and capturing all its essential ideas on paper. But few writers are masterful enough to express a story clearly, get the most tension from all of its plot points, explore all its themes deeply, create characters with roundness and depth and meaningful arcs, and choose the language that perfectly expresses the mood at every moment, all in a first draft. Instead, it’s in revising or self-editing a novel that the magic truly happens, and a story begins to shine.
In editing, we take the best of what we’ve written and enrich it, while weeding out what doesn’t quite match up. We can smooth out our plot, check our logic, strengthen our characters, deepen our themes, make our words work harder and make sure our story’s reaching its full potential, and I just love taking a first draft, figuring out its strong points and weaknesses, and moulding and honing it into the best version of itself.
“The only kind of writing is rewriting.” Ernest Hemingway
The process outlined below has not been honed and perfected over the course of many successful novels – no, just a few as-yet-unpublished ones. Nor do I offer it here because I think it’s ‘right’ or better than any other. But as someone who’s been writing, and studying writing, and agonising over whether my writing was good enough to show to anyone else, for far too many years, I’ve learned plenty about craft, and I know that writers often want to check out as many tools as possible in the search for the best way forward for them. This is the way I’ve found recently that really works for me.
The First Draft
I applaud any writer who can sit down and put the words onto the page in order from start to finish – but I am simply not that kind of writer. I start with whatever part of the story is most on my mind – usually one of the major plot points – and as I figure out what else the story needs I’ll flit about and write those bits too. I’ll write more on my process in another post, I think, but this video by editor Ellen Brock will give you an insight if you’re interested.
I work in Scrivener, which makes it very easy to shuffle scenes around and insert new ones to my heart’s content, with a handy overview in the side column of everything that’s going on.
Generally, when I’m getting serious about a first draft, I’ll also start a scene spreadsheet – some people would call it a reverse outline – listing my scenes and their attributes and allowing me to map the plot visually. I fill it in as I go along. More on that soon…
Sometimes it doesn’t work out and I’ll move on to another story. Sometimes I’ll have to go back to bits I’ve already written and add something or change something in order to make the story work. But if it does work out, at some point I’ll end up with all plot points written and I’ll have just a bit more work to do to string them together effectively, and if I manage all that, and there are no gaps left in the story, then I’ve finished a first draft. Hooray!
“Rewriting is where the game is won or lost; rewriting is the essence of writing.” William Zinsser
The Second Draft
It’s best to let the first draft sit awhile and for my thoughts about it to settle. I’ve probably made some notes as I went along of backstory to be added or things to be altered – perhaps ways I could flesh out the characters some more, or themes I could enrich along the way – so those things marinate in my mind too. Sometimes, if I’ve got other projects on, it might be a few months before I come back to the story, but if I’m really keen it might only be a couple of weeks. And when I’m ready to start editing, there are several stages to completing my second draft:
- Additions
- Reverse Outline
- Structure and Arc
- Identify Themes & Imagery
- Character Work
- Chapter Edits
Additions
First I’ll go back and write in those things I made notes about, fix known problems, and make any other changes that have popped into my mind while the draft has been resting. This probably means adding at least a couple of thousand words, but I’m not worried about word count at this point.
Reverse Outline
The aforementioned scene spreadsheet is a major help when it comes to self-editing a novel, so if I haven’t fully completed it yet, I’ll do it now. The columns in my spreadsheet have developed over time, but they’re loosely based on methods from Martha Alderson’s Blockbuster Plots, and The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne.
Martha Alderson suggests recording the following essential elements for every scene: the scene number OR whether the scene is actually summary; the date and setting; character emotional development; the protagonist’s goal in the scene; the dramatic action; the conflict; the emotional change in the scene; and its thematic details.
Shawn Coyne recommends a similar but much longer list: scene number; word count; story event and summary; the value change from beginning to end of the scene; the polarity of that change, e.g. +/-; the turning point of the scene and whether it’s an action or a revelation; the POV, the time/date; the duration of the scene; the location; characters ‘onstage’, and the number of them; characters ‘offstage’ but mentioned or otherwise influential; and if you get into the nitty gritty, a whole bunch more depending on genre. You can find examples of his method in the resources section of his webpage here.
I’ve used a hybrid of these, and my favoured columns tend to be as follows:
- Chapter no.
- Scene no.
- Word count
- Story event/s
- Value shift (e.g. lies/truth, free/captive, scornful/admiring)
- Shift polarity (+/- or -/+, or sometimes e.g. -/–)
- Verb (what verb or single action is the essence of this scene?)
- Turning point (what action or revelation creates the value shift?)
- POV (colour-coded)
- Characters present (colour-coded according to the appearances of minor characters)
- Location (colour-coded)
- Date
- Duration (actually I use this sporadically, but sometimes it can helpful)
- Date notes (e.g. if it’s important to know when someone’s birthday is, or that it’s Halloween, or when we’re going to consider an injury healed)
- Theme/imagery notes
I fill in these columns for every scene if I possibly can – gaps usually point to a weakness or problem, so those are places I’ll look at more closely when editing.
Structure and Story Arc
Of course, I’ve paid some attention to story structure throughout the process of writing the first draft, but here is where I check my work. I identify the major plot points and highlight those scenes on my scene spreadsheet, and identify the plot points of any subplots too (an extra column on the spreadsheet can be helpful for this if you’ve got a lot going on). If there are any problems, or if plot points fall too early or late, I make plans to fix them, with the help of my spreadsheet and the overview it provides.
There are numerous methods you can use to track the rise and fall of a story, but the one I prefer is Michael Hauge’s six-stage story structure. It was originally conceived for screenwriters, but translates well to any story and is simple and not overly prescriptive. The main difference when using it for a novel, I’d suggest, is that there’s more wiggle-room in a novel in terms of where the early and late plot points fall; the rising action in a novel has much more time to develop than in a film.
At this point I’ll also consider word count and set myself a goal to work towards. Usually that means cutting down several thousand words!
Identify Themes and Imagery
This stuff works best when it emerges organically while writing, but after the first draft is down it can be helpful to look at what’s there and clearly identify the themes and essence of the story. There are many ways to do this, but here are some questions I like to think about:
- What did the main character learn, or how did they change?
- What is the point of this story?
- What is its message?
- What belief of mine does it convey?
- What fear of mine does it reveal?
Then I brainstorm imagery and motifs I’ve used while writing, and pick out what’s working well and could be built on.
Character Work
Again, I have made a good start on defining my characters during the exploratory process of writing the first draft, but now it’s time to make sure each one is fully fleshed out and serving their purpose as well as possible in the story. The main tool I use for this is a character profile, answering questions like the ones in the extensive list I’ve assembled below! But often I also like to freewrite about them a bit, or write a bit about the major story events in their own voice – it can be a good way to learn more about them I hadn’t considered yet!
- Full name
- Personality type
- One verb to describe them
- Theme song(s)
- Family/background
- Vocation/background
- Physical description
- Tics, habits or mannerisms (inc. voice)
- Primary emotion, and symptoms of that emotion
- Likes and dislikes
- Virtues and strengths
- Flaws and weaknesses
- What are their personal goals?
- What is their ultimate goal or ambition? What is their wildest dream?
- What are their internal and external goals in the story?
- What are they passionate about?
- What do they hate?
- What motivates them?
- What are their fears?
- What are they most ashamed of?
- What are their deepest regrets?
- What are their values?
- What are their core beliefs? (Here’s a helpful list to consider)
- What do they wish for?
- What do they avoid?
- What are their perceived needs (what they think they need)?
- What are their true needs (what they really need)?
- What’s in the way of their needs?
- What are their comfort mechanisms?
- What are their defense mechanisms? Coping mechanisms?
- What are their prejudices (judgement triggers)?
- How do they want people to see them?
- How do they see themselves?
- How do they see the world?
- What do they see as the most important thing in life?
- What do they notice most? What are they tuned into as they go about their day?
- How do they behave differently when they’re alone to when they’re around other people?
- What’s the worst thing that could ever happen to them?
- What’s the best thing that could ever happen to them?
- What do they stand to lose in the story?
- What is sacred to them, to the point of irrationality? (This and the rest of this list are paraphrased from The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr – I highly recommend this book for more insight into what makes great characters tick and great stories sing!)
- What is their lie, or false core belief? What misconception do they have about themself or the world?
- What are they lacking as a result of the misconception?
- How is the lie making their life miserable at story’s start? Or how will the inciting incident start to make them uncomfortable because of the lie?
- How do they try to control their world and the people around them? What is their precise strategy?
- “I’m only safe when I…”
- “The best thing about me is…”
- “The worst thing about other people is…”
- “The thing I understand about the world that nobody else does is…”
- What is their sacred belief: “if I don’t believe or behave like this then that will happen”?
- What origin story gave them this belief? What evidence has confirmed it?
- How has their flaw helped, protected, or boosted them?
I don’t always answer every question for every charcter – it’s overkill for minor characters of course – but I at least think them through and fill in what feels important.
Character arcs also need to be considered, and I’ll write out the arc of each character including all main turning points. If anything needs to be addressed, I’ll make a note, or alter the scene spreadsheet to reflect what needs to happen.
Finally, I also like to make POV notes for all POV characters, drawing on the answers from the questions above to pin down how they speak, how they behave, and how they see the world. These details will play into edits from now on.
Chapter Editing
I’ve nailed my structure, characters, and meaning, and I have a word goal to work to. Arguably, I should have considered genre a bit harder, but genre and I don’t get on very well… I also have a detailed plan of my book in the form of my scene spreadsheet or reverse outline, and I have a bunch of notes to help me along the way. It’s time to jump in and start editing, chapter by chapter…
First, I check my spreadsheet and notes and remind myself what’s most important in this chapter. Then I work over the chapter, probably a few times, seeking ways to strengthen each scene, and considering plot, value shifts, setting, POV, character, dialogue, theme, mood, and reducing redundancy and clutter. If there’s anything I get really stuck on, I don’t let it slow me down too long – I make a note for the third draft and move on.
As I go, I’ll be paying attention to length, too. Having the word count of scenes in my spreadsheet next to notes about what happens helps me to spot any places where scenes seem too long, and having highlighted the major turning points helps me to tweak how far through the story they fall. I tend to overwrite, so I’m almost always looking for words to cut! But again, I don’t linger too long if I’m failing to get the wordcount low enough – there is always time for more cutting in future drafts!
Next, I’ll export the scene out of Scrivener into ProWritingAid. I don’t love ProWritingAid so I don’t know if I’m going to stick with this, but I had a free trial when I was writing book one of my trilogy and I was afraid of inconsistency if I didn’t use it for the other two books, so here I am… Turning generative features OFF, I use the style, grammar and spelling checks, adverb search, dialogue checks (which highlight if you’ve overdone the fancy dialogue tags, for example), overused words checks, repeated phrase checks, consistency checks and a few more. I try to reduce my ‘sticky’ sentences too but usually don’t quite reach the goal – I have accepted this is simply my writing style!
A grammar checker like this isn’t always right and sometimes has some truly weird suggestions. However, its perpective always helps me see my writing in a new light and brings weaknesses to my attention – it’s surprisingly helpful even when it’s wrong!
Then I’ll export into Word, add my chapter title, change the font to Times New Roman 12pt – even this can help bring fresh perspective – and run a series of searches for words I know I tend to overuse. Just, like, really, back, and again are the worst culprits! Then body parts, filter words, and certain movements like smile, frown, nod, turn, and look – I’ve got a whole list… Gradually I’m learning to not overuse these words in the first place though! I’ll also check for the most-used words as flagged by ProWritingAid.
TIP: You can use the instructions here to run a word-frequency macro in MSWord and discover all your most frequently used words!
And of course, there are no bad words – each has its place, its use, and its meaning – but doing this helps me find occasions where the words are unnecessary, weak, or used too close together, and lets me edit accordingly.
Finally, I do one last read-through to check everything over, one last spell-check in case I’ve edited anything badly, and a format check, making sure scene breaks, dinkuses, and indents look right, and quote marks and dashes are consistent.
And in this way I work through the whole manuscript, scene by scene and chapter by chapter, until my second draft is complete. This is the stage I usually pass it to my husband to read – he’s my cheerleader, and his feedback and reactions are often useful too! I make a note of any feedback I want to remember for the third draft, and then I put it away again for a few weeks – there’s no substitute for the fresh perspective this brings, each and every time.
Additional Tools
Not every chapter goes smoothly, even with all the groundwork done. Sometimes I have to admit a scene just isn’t needed, and cut it, or isn’t working, and rewrite or do other major work on it. If I want my story to bloom into its best self then it’s essential to recognise what works and what doesn’t. And there are a few extra tools I use along the way to get over some of these bigger problems:
Freewriting
My go-to problem-solving technique at any stage of writing is freewriting. I move away from the document, grab a notebook and pen, and just journal as fast as I can about what the problem is, what the scene needs to achieve, what the characters’ thoughts and wants and needs and motivations are right now, and whatever else comes to mind. Usually this brings a solution pretty fast, but if it doesn’t, another thing I’ll try is brainstorming e.g. five things the character could say right here, or five ways this scene could go, or whatever else feels appropriate. Sometimes seeing the options on paper like this really clarifies things!
Add a Conflict
Some scenes are just too static or too one-note: they’re doing what they need to do, but for some reason they just feel dull and icky, or worse, boring. These are usually conversations or emotional scenes.
Sure, you could add movement – two people talking while DOING something or GOING somewhere has way more flavour than two people sitting talking in a room. But sometimes that’s still not enough. And sometimes two people do sit in a room and talk; maybe one has to sit the other down to say what needs to be said, or maybe one’s incapacited – in a hospital bed for example.
Adding a conflict might mean changing the weather, adding time pressure, adding background noise or an intrusion or some other irritating factor – just make sure it’s in keeping with your setting and theme, and doesn’t feel tacked on. Used well, this strategy can really transform a scene!
But/Therefore
If a scene, or chapter, or act – or even the whole story – isn’t working, try working through the beats like Trey Parker and Matt Stone…
That’s Not All…
So now I have a complete second draft, much richer and more dynamic than the first, because I’ve taken an in-depth look at what the story’s about and what it needs, made its scenes and characters as strong as possible, deepened its meaning, enhanced its mood, and more.
But I haven’t finished yet. I almost certainly haven’t reached my word goal, I’ve got notes on things that still need more work, notes from my husband’s feedback, and without a doubt when I next read the draft I’ll notice other things that can be tightened up too.
Before I go any further, I put the draft away again for a few weeks – when you’re self-editing a novel, there’s no substitute for the fresh perspective this brings, each and every time.
Next time I read the draft, it will be on paper, with a handful of highlighters and a pencil. But more on that in my next post…
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
In the meantime, I’d love to hear about YOUR self-editing process, and if you have any tips to share please put them in the comments too!
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