Revision Tips from a Developmental Editor
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I’m biased, but I firmly believe that developmental editing is one of the best investments you can make in your writing journey. Why? Because developmental editing is about more than that one manuscript. A good developmental editor is really an educator. Their feedback does more than point out errors and offer revision suggestions—it helps you understand the craft of writing on a deeper level.
When I complete a developmental edit, I take the time to explain my recommendations so that my writers know exactly how my suggested revisions will impact their future readers. I also provide specific recommendations for books and other resources that help guide my clients in their editing process.
Today, I’m giving you a peak behind the curtain and sharing three tips that I consistently give to my editing clients. It’s not quite the same as getting personalized feedback on my work (you can check your options for working with me here), but it’s a good start!
Tip #1: Revise in layers.
Trying to tackle everything in your manuscript at once is a recipe for overwhelm and burnout, but what’s a writer to do when they’re staring down a long list of changes to make?
Revise in layers.
Start by looking at your story at a structural level. Make decisions about what needs to be added, subtracted, and rewritten. Then, implement those changes in your draft.
Then, go back to your draft. This time you might evaluate your characterization, character arcs, worldbuilding, and scene-level conflict. For this revision, you might decide to read and revise as you go.
Then, you might read through your entire draft to get a sense of what it feels like to experience the manuscript as a reader. As you read, make notes on pacing, backstory, and anything else that pops up in your reading.
Then revise again, tackling those notes while also addressing the quality of your descriptions and dialogue.
The goal is to limit the number of choices that you need to make in each round of revisions so that you can give each element the attention it deserves and ensure that you maximize each element of your story.
Tip #2: Retype instead of copy-pasting from one draft to another.
I picked this tip up from Matt Bell’s book Refuse to be Done. At first, this tip sounded like an insane waste of time, but it’s actually a game changer when you’re working on developmental edits for your story. If you copy-paste or simply revise in your original document, you’ll often end up making only superficial changes. That’s fine when you’re working on copyediting. When you’re working on developmental edits or line-editing, however, you have to keep yourself open to making big changes in your story.
Retyping forces you to interrogate each and every word in your original draft. You have to decide whether a scene or chapter actually belongs in your story. You have to hone in on your original character and worldbuilding descriptions to figure out if they’re serving your story or dragging it down.
When I need to make big changes in a manuscript or need to really rethink the way a scene is coming together, this strategy is my go-to.
Tip #3: Know when it’s time to make difficult decisions.
Writers are often told to “write forward”. When they come to a crossroads in the manuscript, they’re supposed to just keep drafting, driving that momentum forward so that they don’t get bogged down in small elements of the manuscript.
When you’re drafting, that advice works great.
Don’t go down the research rabbit hole. Don’t get caught up on naming a side character. Don’t worry about changing place names and descriptions that don’t quite match up across chapters.
Writing the first draft is all about setting your priorities and choosing not to get lost in the weeds. But eventually, the day will come when you need to grab your weedwacker and start making choices.
That day comes when you revise your novel.
Sometimes those choices will be small: grabbing a name off a list of baby names (or off your list of world appropriate character names) and slapping it on to that butcher who only shows up once in the novel.
Sometimes those choices will be big: do the faeries in your world have two legs or four?
If you’re struggling to make decisions about where to take your story, I recommend sitting somewhere quiet where you can take the time to ponder your options and eventually land on the one that will best serve your story.
The key is to keep moving forward. Make a decision and run with it. Talk it out with your critique partners, bring it to your writing group, or if you’re completely lost and unable to choose, call in an editor who can weigh in on the implications for each of your possible choices (you can check out my editing services here).
Just know that every novel contains a multitude of possibilities. There is more than one way to write your book. Trust yourself to find the version that works best for you right now.
Tip #4: Read.
I include craft book recommendations in all of my editorial letters. Why? Writing a novel requires an immense knowledge of writing craft. You can build up that knowledge in two ways. First, you can read instructional books from the amazing writers, teachers, and editors who generously share their knowledge. Second, you can read books in your genre and study the craft moves that your favorite authors are using.
I’m not suggesting you do one or the other. Both are necessary. Reading craft books helps you develop the knowledge to identify the craft moves that you’ll then analyze in the fiction you read. Reading fiction will help develop your story sense and help you identify which craft rules apply to your genre/target audience and which you can safely ignore because they don’t fit your goals as a writer.
I can’t tell you which books to read to learn your genre (there are just way too many out there), but I can tell you which craft books I recommend to my clients most often. Here are my top three:
Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell - This has to be the book I recommend most often. Why? Because writing effective conflict is hard and Bell does a great job breaking it down and making these writing elements approachable and easy to understand.
Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin - One of the strongest explanations of the self-editing process from a skilled developmental editor who also happens to be a fantastic writer. This book is best approached in small doses (come back to it as you reach a new stage in the revision process), but the knowledge Yates-Martin provides is invaluable.
The Emotion Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman - There’s a reason this book has sold over 1 million copies—it’s invaluable. If you’ve ever struggled with “show, don’t tell” or wracked your brain for a way to express your character’s anger without having them clench their fists for the hundredth time, you need this book. Like, right now. Think of this book as your line-editing companion, always on hand to guide you to better body language and more expressive scenes.
There you go, the four tips that I most often share with my editing clients and the three books I most often recommend to them. Looking for more personalized suggestions for your revision process? I’ve got you!
Check out my developmental editing services here and my book coaching services here.
I can’t wait to help you write a better book!
FYI: This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. For more information click here and thanks, as always, for your support!
