Edit Your Brains Out

Over and Over Again

These are a few simple methods for compulsive procrastinators with stalled drafts and plummeting confidence. In other words, some ways I've been encouraging myself to edit my draft. Hopefully, you'll find a helpful idea.

I don't like editing. When it comes to editing a coagulated mess of prose, I lose my passion and my will to work. I want to like editing because it is an important step in a writing. It's not as easy as generating ideas and creating the coagulated mess. The fact that it's hard means I have to work at it and fight to improve. Improvement will feel so good because I fought for it.

Divide and conquer

Split the draft into smaller files.

A big draft can intimidate the strongest heart. Break the draft down into chapters. Give each chapter its own file and number them to keep order. I recommend numbering by twos in case you realize you need to add a chapter because otherwise you will have to renumber every file after the new chapter.

Edit by the Numbers

Set daily goals.

One of the easy ways to gauge progress when writing is to run a word count and aim to reach a certain goal everyday. When editing, aim to make 50 changes a day or aim to edit a single chapter per day.

Go through the novel sentence by sentence and word by word. Slowly and surely, you will go from having a novel of rotted tripe to a novel you're willing to admit exists.

Have a purpose

Make a checklist of flaws.

Create a checklist of weaknesses and problems to attack. Include sections to edit, aspects to focus on, weak words to tear out and ideas you want to incorporate. Then work your way down the checklist. Being able to check off objectives on the list will give you the precious sense of progress.

Recognize failure

Go with the method that works.

Some methods don't work, some sections of prose are better in the trash bin.

Don't throw the book out with crap. If a section doesn't work, change it. A tactic fails for you, try a new tactic.

Consider the possibility that your struggle with your draft is because you are overlooking a problem. Look at your novel and ask hard questions. Is it any good? What is the point? Why am I writing this? Am I proud of this? What can I do to make this better? What is boring?

Warning

Don't torment yourself.

Don't overtax yourself. If you're tired, take a break.