Diagnosis

There are a number of steps to editing a novel. I've bought Fix Your Damn Book by James Osiris Baldwin. I'm working my way through it, and I think I have a grasp of how I'm going to start editing.

I've started with Diagnosis.

First he says to rest your book for two to six weeks, depending on how much editing you've already done. I'm trying to get my novel ready for Pitch Wars so I'm not resting it. I wish I had because I think my editing would be more effective, but hopefully I can do my best in the time I have.

When I'm diagnosing, I'm looking for weak plot, poor characterisation and lapses of tension. I'm also keeping my eye out for lack of detail, or details which contradict each other.

He also says to take this opportunity to write the synopsis and the tag line for the novel as this is when you're still in love with your book and can write the dream ideas for it.

First Step: Plot Planner

I've written out my plot planner now. It literally just says what my two main characters do in the scene, who is in the scene and what the links are to the subplots. It's a very dry document that wasn't fun to write, but it was fun to read through my novel.

This has highlighted my saggy middle, however. I've got two scenes where the main characters are separately learning about their world and picking up the skills they need to achieve their goals in the climax.

These are the only two scenes in the entire book where there is no tension, no conflict, nothing to drive the scene. I can either cut them down completely, turn them into a paragraph each which appears in another scene or rewrite them.

Chopping out these scenes entirely would help with my word count. They're mainly filled with info dumps dressed up in a pretty way. I could even compress them half the size and put them together in a chapter. I'll have a look when I come to rewrite them. They certainly need work.

Dues Ex Machina

I don't quite use this at the end of my novel but there are new elements introduced so I think I need to work on that as well. It just needs a mention of these things earlier in the book for the main characters to notice and that will sort it out a bit.

I'm Not Precious

Chopping scene or even part of a scene might seem a bit drastic to some, but the over all story and the journey the reader takes with my characters is what's important.

There's one scene where one of my main characters appears with singed fingers and soot covered hair, so it's possible to imagine what he's been up to without writing an entire scene to explain it. He also has a bit of dialogue to describe how it went, which also shows how his attitude is changing.

Better Get Back to It

As ever, thank you for reading. I'm not sure if what I'm doing is right, I just want to make the best story I can for the children who get to read it. Hopefully, the adventures of Lexi Walker and Tim Chen will inspire others.