Self-editing: Where to start?

Finishing a novel is an achievement on its own, one that should be applauded. When you think about everything you've done, all the sacrifices you've made to bring your world and characters to life, all you should feel is pride. But that's not the end of the line. It is highly advisable for you to edit your novel, one way or another.

Hiring a professional editor isn't financially possible for lots of authors, and rightfully so. Experienced editors are expensive, but if you're lucky, you might be able to find one that is still in the process of learning. And I'm not only talking about myself: I personally know another 2 people who are just testing out the editing waters, but believe it or not, I hired one of them as an editor for my own novel. And yes, even editors need editors.

Here are some pieces of advice you might benefit from.

1. Print your entire manuscript.

This might seem as an unnecessary step, but I promise you: we see words differently when they are on a real page instead of just a monitor. You don't have to print it all out at once. Commit to analyzing the first five, or even ten chapters, and take it from there. It would be great if you could print it double-spaced with margins wide enough for you to leave comments. Once you have the manuscript (or a part of it) in your hands, grab some colored pencils (or some magic markers, if you printed the document is one-sided) along with a pen (or another plain pencil) and a large glass of lemonade or a cup of coffee or tea. Because, my friends, you're about to...

2. Read out loud.

This might seem as a waste of time, but can actually be a vital part in your self-editing. By reading out loud, you will not only hear how the syntax sounds, but will also notice the rhythm of each paragraph, chapter, and ultimately, your entire story. Staccato — more than 4 sentences in a row that have approximately the same number of words — is never a good idea, but the only way for you to effectively notice it is to hear it. Reading out loud will also reveal whether you have a lot of filler, repetition, filter verbs, adverbs, and glue words. and can also be very helpful in identifying paragraphs where you're not really moving along with the plot, but simply spinning in circles.

3. Identifying filler.

Filler, or fluff, is content that does nothing to your story but up that word count. It's padding we as writers absolutely love but don't really need. It serves no purpose and has no true bearing on the story: removing it would have little to no effect on the plot. If you were to take out that piece of writing, the story would not lose continuity and the reader wouldn’t be confused. In fact, cutting such content can only make a story better.

A few easy ways to identify if something is filler are to ask yourself the following questions:

—does the passage move the plot forward?

—does it serve a specific purpose?

—does it deepen characterization?

—does it develop the character?

—is it related to a theme you want to thread throughout your book?

—what do you lose if you remove it?

Of course, filler can serve the useful purpose of allowing the reader some breathing time between the exhausting action. If you decide this is necessary, ensure you use the filler as a tool, and sparingly.

4. Removing filter verbs

This task might need some syntax restructuring, but in your first pass, it is important that you at least identify the filter verbs. Filter words are verbs that increase the narrative distance, reminding us that what we’re reading is being told by someone rather than experienced, or shown, through the eyes of the character.

Generally, filter verbs relate to the five senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch. However, they also relate to thought processes.

Sight: see / saw, notice / noticed, spot / spotted, look / looked, watch / watched, detect / detected, discern / discerned, distinguish / distinguished, observe / observed.

Sound: hear / heard, listen / listened, eavesdrop / eavesdropped, overhear / overheard, sound (like) / sounded (like).

Taste: taste / tasted, relish /relished, savor / savored.

Smell: smell / smelled, whiff / whiffed.

Touch: feel (like) / felt (like).

Thoughts: realize / realized, know / knew, remember / remembered, decide / decided, note / noted, notice / noticed, seem / seemed, realize / realized, figure / figured, think / thought, wonder / wondered, believe / believed, decide / decided, assume / assumed.

I know, you're pretty much left without verbs, right?

No. You aren't. You don't need to ban all filter verbs, but it sure helps to be able to distinguish them. When used intentionally, they have a layering effect that can enrich a novel. If the narrative distance in much of the surrounding text is close and you want to ease the tension and pull the reader back, you can use some of the filter verbs. It will help ground the reader. You could also use filter words to introduce a different mood, or even use them so that your prose makes sense. Sometimes, a character does realize or watch or think something, and we need to know that.

If you want to get rid of the filter verbs, however, here are some simple examples that will help you understand how you can do that.

Filter: I see an old house on the other side of the street.

Fix: An old house sits on the other side of the street.

Filter: She felt light-headed and gripped the door frame.

Fix: Light-headed, she gripped the door frame.

Filter: He heard music from the other room.

Fix: Music echoed from the other room.

Filter: She realised it was raining.

Fix: It was raining.

Filter: I knew this was dangerous.

Fix: This was dangerous.

5. Removing glue words.

Glue words are sometimes also referred to as ‘sticky words’. A glue word is a word that tends to be an essential part of a sentence. That is, many glue words are the connectives that hold it together, make it make sense. However, an overabundance can make the sentence slow and gloopy - in other words, sticky.

The most famous glue words I have encountered in my own writing are: that, just, almost, always, barely, any, somewhat, actually, basically, certainly, definitely, probably, somehow, if only, maybe, surprisingly.

As you noticed, quite a bit of these are adverbs. Again, this doesn't mean you have to remove them all, but rather use them sparingly.

Find a thorough list here: https://successfulchristianselfpublishing.com/a-list-of-glue-words/

6. Identifying repetition.

Often, when we are writing, we fail to notice the use of similar phrasing or identical verbs on the same page. Reading out loud will definitely help you understand whether this is the case. For starters, you can simply mark the repetition and then later on either find a synonym or completely restructure the sentence. Deleting repetition altogether, unless it was done on purpose, is a way to go, too, as long as the context isn't endangered. It might be best to read the entire paragraph, or even page, with and without the sentence where the repetition has occurred and make an informed decision. Cutting relentlessly isn't always the answer, but can be very liberating if done properly.

The repetition can also occur on a grander scale, creating the impression of 'running in circles'. This means you keep saying pretty much the same thing over and over again, in which case you probably need to stop and think what the scene is supposed to be about. If you find yourself summarizing an entire chapter into a mere paragraph or two, it might be best to restructure the previous or the following chapter as to 'add' the information. Naturally, this might require some extensive rewriting, but I promise your story will be stronger once you get rid of these, quite frankly, unnecessary beats.