Steps in the Editing Process: Motivational Monday 09/12
Happy Motivation Monday to all my fellow writers out there!
I found this quote from Terry Pratchett that I wanted to share with you today: “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
As a writer, it’s important to remember that your first draft will be far from perfect. Your second draft might not even be that better, but the more you work through the editing process, the more you’ll see your story develop and find its true voice.
Here are the steps in the editing process:
Self-editing: After you’ve written your story, take a break from your manuscript. Learn more about the editing process and figure out what you’re approach will be to tackling all the work you’ll have to do before your manuscript is publication-ready. This is a great time to outline your writing and editing goals for your project. Read through your story out loud to catch subtle mistakes. Your first draft will have several, several mistakes. Don’t feel overwhelmed. Self-editing is only the beginning!
Structural/developmental editing: This is the first official step of the editing process where you (or an editor) will look at big-picture edits. This is when you focus on the overall development of your story: your narrative, story plot (sub and main plot points), character development, overall readability, and genre assessment. Though this is a step you can certainly look over yourself, I highly suggest finding a skilled and detail-oriented editor to help you solidify the essential parts of your story to ensure your readers get an organized and well-developed book.
Copy and Line Editing: This next step of the editing process includes line-by-line editing to capture any mistakes made on the sentence level: grammar, consistency, word choice, and sentence structure. I HIGHLY suggest at this stage in the editing process, after you’ve nailed down the developmental aspects of your story, that you hire an editor to look at all the small details in your manuscript. After a professional copy-editing pass, your book should be nearly ready for publication.
BETA Readers: This part is optional, but highly recommended. Recruiting a number of BETA Readers to read and give feedback on your manuscript will help you pinpoint any additional changes you want to make in your story. If you don’t choose to hire an editor, I believe this step is a must. Sometimes a writer can be blind to their own mistakes, so having readers look over your work will give you a great idea of how likable and engaging your manuscript really is.
Proofreading: After you’ve formatted your book, the last step before the publishing process is to hire a proofreader to catch any additional mistakes that may have slipped past your copy-editing pass. Proofreaders will catch any typos or small mistakes to insure your book is error-free.
I’ve self-published two books, and I honestly thought that I could transform my mess of a manuscript into a perfect book like all the published books in Barnes and Nobel just through self-editing. Now hear me out, self-editing is important—the last thing you want to do is send your editor your very very first draft, but self-editing isn’t perfect. Sometimes having another eye (or a couple of other eyes) look over your manuscript can be a game changer. I will never self-publish another book without several editing passes. The more I’ve learned about the editing process (through experience) and focused on my editing career, I’ve realized that if you’re asking readers to pay for your book, it should be of the highest quality. Hiring a professional and highly-detailed editor can ensure that.
If you are an indie author needing affordable editing passes, I offer developmental/structural editing, copy editing, BETA Reading, and proofreading services. Check out my editing services on Fiverr and Linktree to get more info about my services. I love using my platform to help other indie authors get their books out there— your baby will be in good hands with me!
Have a great Monday!
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