More Editing A Novel

My Editing Process Part 2

In my last post I described my editing process up to the point where I send my novel over to my agent. Now, some people might not need to send to their agent, but there’s 2 things here. Firstly, I am on a 1 book deal with first refusal being with my publishers, and secondly, I have an amazing agent in Clare Coombes of The Liverpool Literary Agency. She is also a skilled editor and helps me get my work to the best possible level before the publishers sees it.

On her first read through she said it’s ready enough to go straight to the publisher - but let’s make it even better. Which is what I’m now working on. In this post I’ll share with you my process from receiving her editing suggestions.

When my agent sends through edits she does it with comments chapter by chapter - she doesn’t get into line edits (looking at sentence structure and whether a sentence could be written better), focusing instead on the novel structure and the characterisations.

Once I’ve received her comments, this is my step-by-step process, which I aim to complete in 2-3 weeks:

1. I have a quick chat about the comments with my agent, to make sure we are both on the same page - so far we have been. There was one change she asked for that I am unsure about, and she has said that it’s fine to leave it the way it is for sending through to the publisher.

2. Now I start with the actual edit process. I set up a spreadsheet - I’m a spreadsheet queen thanks to the career I’ve had in the NHS managing projects. On the spreadsheet, I use a series of columns

   1. Chapter

   2. Sub-title

   3. Point of View (if it’s one POV I don’t use this column, but for this novel I have 2 POV and want to be sure that I have the right mix between them - I currently think I need to bring in a bit more of the secondary POV, now that I see it on the spreadsheet)

   4. Editorial Comments (in this case, from my agent)

   5. Thoughts / Changes

   6. Status - no change; to do; check (because a change somewhere might have affected something in this chapter); in progress; done

   7. Synopsis (chapter synopsis to make it easier to write the synopsis for the publisher

3. Then I add in the changes my agent has suggested so that I can have a clear view of what needs doing.

4. Next I write in any thoughts I have about the changes, and as I go along with the edits, I might also make notes of changes I make so that I remember I need to follow that through elsewhere in the novel.

5. After that I re-read the novel and make notes about where changes are needed - this is simply on screen and is a scan through rather than a detailed read through.

6. Now it’s time to work on the edits. I always start with something easy, which might be a new scene or chapter, or a change to a chapter that is pretty straightforward. This eases me into the edits, and as much as anything is a way in which I make myself connect back with my characters.

7. As I work on the edits, I make sure to note where this might affect another chapter so I don’t miss changes. For example, in this edit I am changing how two characters originally met, and as a result of that, there are some changes I have to make in chapters that are otherwise fine as they are.

8. In amongst all this work on the edits, there’s a load of reality. I have moments of angst; I struggle with changes; I change one bit, start changing other associated bits, then realise the initial change didn’t work; oh yes, and I spend hours stressing over something, not managing to make it work, and then realise that the best thing to do is simply to rewrite the chapter or scene. I guess what I’m saying is, despite having a system. I still have my editing struggles, because that’s the life of writing and making things work for the reader.

9. After I’ve done all the edits I do a read through of the novel again, so that I’m sure I’ve captured everything that needed doing.

10. And finally, I send my novel back over to my agent, and wait impatiently for her to get back to me - I mean, like with last time, it’s not unreasonable to expect a detailed response within 24 hours, is it?

In a future post I’ll write about how I work on edits with my editor, but I’ll leave that until we work on the edits for this novel as it will be fresh in my mind. If you enjoyed reading this, I’d love you to share it with others.

Until next time,

Zoë