Editing: you might love it, you might hate it, but all writers have to do it. Sadly, no first draft turns out perfect — and that’s why we have to rewrite, reword, and revise… sometimes six or seven or eight hundred times.
Editing can be grueling, but it’s worth it. And today I’m going to take you behind-the-scenes and show you what my editing process looks like, start to finish. How I take a messy first draft and transform it into a polished masterpiece.
Although I’m a big supporter of editing your own work A LOT, I don’t recommend you go it alone completely. Part of the editing process is getting feedback and critiques from beta readers and people whom you trust — for me, those people are my sister, my mom, and my editor Jen. These three ladies are 100% honest with me, but encourage me to write better and stronger.
So I have something special for you in today’s video! I’m going to show you a SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON of a page from my debut novel, 100 Days of Sunlight — the first (unedited) draft vs the final (polished) draft! You’ll get to…
- see how I edit all my novels
- and how I organize them and color-code corrections as I go
- look over my shoulder and watch me compare my first draft to my final draft
- line by line, see how the manuscript has changed!
Let’s talk.
Let’s talk all things editing! Do you love editing or do you hate it? Do you like to print off your manuscripts and scribble corrections all over them, or do you prefer to edit on the computer? Do you color-code your highlighters?! Comment below and tell me all these things + one editing tip that has helped you!!
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