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Self-Editing

Processing · Literature Review Created Jan 4, 2025
Project: writing
writingcrafteditingrevision

Good writing is rewriting. Hemingway claimed to write 91 pages for every page of masterpiece, putting the rest in the wastebasket. This document covers the techniques.

The Three Stages of Editing

Move from macro to micro:

  1. Developmental/Structural — Big picture: plot, character arcs, pacing, themes. Does the story work?

  2. Line Editing — Sentence and paragraph level: word choice, style, voice, rhythm. How is language used?

  3. Copy Editing — Mechanics: grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistency.

  4. Proofreading — Final typo pass before publication.

Time Between Drafts

Stephen King’s drawer method: minimum six weeks before revising. Work on something completely unrelated.

The purpose: distance creates objectivity. You’ll spot plot holes and weak prose you’d miss immediately after writing.

For shorter works, less time—but enough that the text no longer feels intimately familiar.

Line Editing Techniques

Sol Stein’s 1+1=1/2 Rule: The power of words diminishes when you don’t pick just the better one. “Walked quickly” becomes “hurried.”

Strong nouns and verbs over adjectives: Good writing relies on precise nouns and verbs, not piled modifiers.

Vary sentence structure: Too many short sentences reads like a list; too many long becomes confusing. Mix creates rhythm.

Cutting Ruthlessly

“Kill your darlings” (Arthur Quiller-Couch): Remove passages you love but that don’t serve the story.

What to cut:

  • Redundancy and overemphasis
  • Purple prose
  • Unnecessary subplots
  • Weak characters who could be removed
  • Excessive backstory
  • Scenes that don’t advance plot or reveal character
  • Filler words: almost, appear, just, very, really, quite, actually, basically, sort of, started to, began to

Filter words that distance readers: wonder, think, feel, realize, notice, see, hear.

Instead of “She felt cold” → “Cold seeped through her coat.”

Save your cuts: Move deleted material to a “scraps” document. It might inspire future projects.

Common Mistakes to Catch

Grammar/Punctuation:

  • Tense switching within scenes
  • Homophones (they’re/their/there)
  • Overuse of exclamation points and semicolons
  • Comma splices

Style:

  • Passive voice — “The ball was thrown by Bill” → “Bill threw the ball”
    • The “by zombies” test: if you can add “by zombies” after the verb, it’s passive
  • Adverb overuse — Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs”
  • Inconsistent POV — Stick to first or third; avoid head-hopping
  • Long paragraphs — Break anything over half a page

Fiction-Specific:

  • Head-to-toe character descriptions
  • Avoiding conflict
  • Weak dialogue tags (“he pontificated”)
  • “Telling” instead of “showing”

Reading Aloud

Your brain processes spoken text differently. You hear awkward phrasing, repetition, and rhythm problems invisible when reading silently.

Benefits:

  • Catches typos and word omissions
  • Reveals clunky dialogue
  • Exposes rhythm problems
  • Helps assess tone and voice
  • Identifies run-on sentences

Techniques:

  • Record and play back
  • Use text-to-speech (the robotic voice prevents you from adding natural inflections)
  • Have someone else read to you

Self-Editing Checklists

Developmental Pass:

  • Does the opening hook?
  • Is the main conflict clear?
  • Do characters have clear motivations and arcs?
  • Appropriate pacing?
  • Plot holes or logical inconsistencies?
  • Backstory integrated naturally?
  • Every scene advances plot or develops character?

Line-Level Pass:

  • Varied sentence length and structure?
  • Strong verbs instead of weak verb + adverb?
  • Consistent voice?
  • Dialogue sounds natural when read aloud?
  • Filter words eliminated?
  • Each word necessary?

Copy Edit Pass:

  • Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation?
  • Consistent formatting?
  • No homophone errors?
  • Proper paragraph breaks?
  • Correct dialogue punctuation?

Tools and Techniques

Physical Changes:

  • Print the manuscript — Reading on paper engages different brain parts
  • Change the font — Tricks brain into seeing text fresh
  • Read backwards — Sentence by sentence from end to beginning (proofreading only)

Software:

  • Hemingway Editor — Readability, passive voice, adverbs. $19.99 lifetime.
  • Grammarly — Robust grammar checking with AI suggestions
  • ProWritingAid — Most comprehensive for fiction. Detailed reports on style, redundancy, pacing.

Combined use: ProWritingAid (depth) + Hemingway (readability) for novel editing.

The Funneling Technique

Evaluate progressively:

  1. Work as a whole (themes, structure)
  2. Sections
  3. Chapters
  4. Scenes
  5. Paragraphs
  6. Sentences

At each level, ask: What’s the purpose? Keep, cut, or revise?

How Professionals Work

  • Editors work in stages, never everything at once
  • Developmental edit first → author revisions → line edit (fresh eyes) → copy edit → proofread
  • 4-5 hours editing daily maximum
  • Even skilled editors miss things; multiple passes are standard

The Philosophy of Tight Writing

Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory: Know everything about your characters and story, but write very little. Only one-eighth shows above water.

Stephen King: “Your job is to give readers stress, strain, and pressure.” Keep prose tight, use “said,” minimize adverbs, trust readers.

The essential truth: “I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.” — Hemingway

Good writing is essentially rewriting.