My last prompt for this month on editing is to ask–writers, what’s your best editing tip?
Mine would be that when you have finished all your big picture edits–smoothing out the character developments, plugging the plot holes, filling in logic gaps–to edit your chapters out of order.
If you read each chapter like it’s a short story, you can pay better attention to the details. When you read in order, you often pay attention to the big picture items, such as how does the end of chapter four flow into the beginning of chapter five. Treating each chapter as its own little story makes you zero in on problems in dialogue or description or pacing. Writers, I’d love to hear from you. What’s your best editing tip?
Wow, I’ve never thought of that, but it makes sense to think of it as a short story. That explains why all your chapters begin and end with such an interesting punch. When you edit out of order, do you ever get confused and wonder if you included sequence details in the right order? Sometimes when I write out of order, I have to be sure that, for instance, if the characters are carpooling, I remembered to explain whose car was broken down in the previous chapter.
One thing that has helped me improve my dialogue is to read the passages out loud during editing.
That’s a great tip for editing dialogue! You can find the clunky sections easier. Yes, I sometimes forget if I’ve mentioned certain keys points while editing. Then I have to visit other chapters to make sure I’ve laid the bread crumbs of my plot correctly.