Top Tips for the Editing Process
Juliet Mushens expands on how to edit, create a dialogue between author and agent, and gives her top editing tips for first time authors:
Editorial work is one of my favourite parts of the process. Not all agents are editorial but I am very much so – I see a manuscript like a jigsaw puzzle, and love to figure out where everything slots together, to make it a strong and cohesive whole. A lot of writers can be scared of the idea of editing their work, presuming it’s going to be a dictatorial editor/agent in a combative role telling them: NO, that’s wrong, hate that, cut that, kill every darling! But the relationship is much more nurturing and fluid than that. It’s very much a dialogue.
I might say ‘why does she act like this?’ or ‘are we supposed to take from this that he is unsympathetic, isn’t that in contradiction with how we feel about him later?’ Or bigger questions like ‘if the killer is supposed to be him, then why does he only appear on page 150?’ or ‘why do we spend 100pp with a POV character who then disappears?’ These questions are supposed to provoke a response in the writer, make them question their own process and consider ways to answer what I am asking. Usually, the author knows deep down that those aspects need work, and most of the time the conversation is a satisfying one: not an editorial monologue, but us bouncing ideas off one another.
I see my job as making a manuscript as polished as we can get it, but knowing full well that an editor will also see work as necessary in the manuscript. I just need to get it to a stage where I feel the obvious issues have been addressed, so myself and the writer feel confident in sending it out into the world.
My editing tips for first time authors are always the same:
I recommend finishing the manuscript first before editing the text. It’s easy to get stuck in an editorial loop of polishing and rewriting the first chapters, and then not making headway with the rest of the book. I suggest writing the whole thing – even if it’s a messy ‘word vomit’ draft! – before starting the editorial process. I also believe firmly that many of the questions and issues will resolve themselves in the writing process, and that the ending of a novel informs the beginning. Perhaps once you reach the end you realise that Character X is actually not your main character, or that the first person POV needs to become third person. But those things will largely become apparent once you have written your first draft, no matter how messy.
Put the book away for a month. It’s tempting to type THE END and then begin to edit right away, but at that stage you won’t be able to see the wood for the trees. But with a bit of distance, it will become much clearer the points in the novel which work – or don’t work.
Read the manuscript like you would a published book. Put it on your kindle, or print it out, and read it like it’s a novel. Where do you start to skim? Where does the prose feel clunky? Where are you rushing? Have a notebook/laptop open as you read and note down the big structural issues you notice (‘I spend 50 pages with a character who then disappears!’) as well as the smaller things (‘she has 2 birthdays in the space of a year!). Step 2 is crucial to step 3 working: that distance is necessary to see things more clearly.
Don’t rush the process. I recommend doing at least three drafts before you send it out to agents. However, equally, I think there comes a point where you have done as much as you can. I sometimes meet people who have been revising the same novel for five, ten, years. At that point, you’ll be at the stage of just moving commas around. You need to hit send at some stage!
Don’t worry too much about getting others to read it. It can be helpful to use an editorial service – and there are some great ones out there – but it is absolutely not something I expect of an author. Equally, getting friends to read it can be useful, but if you’re writing fantasy and they’ve never read a SFF novel except Lord of the Rings, they might not be much use!
Make sure you give the whole text the attention you give the opening chapters. I see a lot of novels where the first three chapters are phenomenally polished and great, but when I call in the full manuscript the rest of the text doesn’t live up to the promise of the start. Give the whole book a chance to shine, as that’s just as important as the opening.
Think about the beats of your plot. I think learning to outline a novel is incredibly useful when you are starting out. Often I read books and think ‘the writing is good, but it’s a book where there are some people and some things happen’ rather than ‘wow I am so invested in this story’. I am a big fan of ‘Save the Cat’, and the three-act structure, and think it is important to keep suspense and pace in mind. Of course there are novels which are extremely playful with structure and form which still work – but they still have a firm eye on building character, and hooks in the narrative which will pull the reader through.
Try not to get too hung up on writing rules. There are so many ‘rules’ out there about showing not telling, POV, to prologue or not to prologue… Trust yourself, and trust your book. It is helpful to read as widely as you can about editing, but ultimately I have never rejected a novel because the inciting incident comes at 15% rather than 10%!