How to self edit your book

Editing your own work is equal parts challenging and exhausting. Going over your book (or anything you’ve written) again and again can be very frustrating.

“How many times should I read and reread my own novel before it’s done?”

It’s a good question. Don’t you wish that there was some kind of “self editing checklist” that you could just look at to help you figure this all out?

You’re in luck!

Self editing

Before diving into a self editing checklist, it’s important to cover a few things.

First of all, before editing, making sure that you have a really solid foundation for your book or novel can save you headaches later. There are lots of different ways to write, but making sure that you have a general sense of what needs to happen is really important (but we’ll be covering this later and focusing on the edit here).

There are lots of different ways that you can self edit your novel, and it’s important to develop some basic habits when it comes to editing. Not everyone can afford to hire an editor, and even if you can afford one, being able to self edit your work first can mean lower costs and faster turnaround times.

Importantly, self editing can help you to ensure that you’re telling the story as you want to tell it (more on this later).

Self editing checklist

Ask ten editors for advice about self editing and you’ll get ten different opinions, so here’s my easy self editing checklist:

1. Read chapters when you finish them;

2. Don’t edit your book right after you finish;

3. Use a spellchecker;

4. Read your book out loud;

5. Review your notes;

6. Revise (then go back to Step 3).

Let’s go into more detail!

1. Read chapters when you finish them

I know what you’re thinking—I’ve read people recommending the opposite of this. Lots of people say that you shouldn’t do any editing at all before you finish the book. There’s a lot of logic in that, it’s very easy to get bogged down trying to find the perfect way to write something.

I’m not recommending that you do much editing here. What I’m recommending is that you check to make sure that you haven’t missed anything significant.

Did a character need to get introduced but you forgot? Did you cover all the specific plot points that you needed?

It is much easier to quickly add a missed piece of information at this stage than waiting for the whole novel to be done and then trying to figure out where it was supposed to go in the first place.

Don’t edit your chapters (significantly)

What you read earlier was right—now is not the time to edit chapters significantly. That comes later. Once you’ve made sure that a chapter has everything that it needs, you put that chapter on the shelf and move on to the next one. Finish that next chapter and then read it. Then finish the next chapter and read it.

For me, the easiest thing to do is to keep a pad of paper and a pen handy so that I can jot down notes for future reference. One of my notes might look like this:

Chapter 5
p.52 - added information about the weather (cloudy, about to rain).

Nothing complicated, just information that I can quickly reference later.

2. Don’t edit your book right after you finish

One of the most important steps in the self editing checklist is to step away from your book when you finish it. You might really be pumped to get started with the revisions, but it’s important to take a moment to breathe. In my opinion, there are two major reasons for this.

First, you need to let your ideas settle and breathe. And you also need to make sure that you’re coming back to the book with a clean slate when you start your self edit.

Give your novel time to breathe

Let’s say that you write a chapter where you introduce a character. You write that character a certain way, and you give them a series of traits and qualities. When you start to edit your novel immediately after you finish you miss out on giving yourself some time to forget how you felt in the moment about something.

Sometimes things that feel right in the moment can wind up being poorly thought out plans.

Character might just not feel right upon later review.

Giving yourself a bit of time away from your book and letting yourself forget how you feel during the writing can let you revise and edit your work objectively and more effectively.

Self edit with a clean slate

It’s difficult to overstate how important it is to come back to your work feeling fresh.

Writing is exhausting. Revisions are exhausting. Editing is exhausting. Make sure that you’re not tired when you come back to do your revisions and edits, because your time is valuable and you want to make sure that you’re being as effective as possible in what time you have.

“Writing is exhausting. Revisions are exhausting. Editing is exhausting.”

3. Use a spellchecker

I know that this feels like a bit of a no-brainer, but the reason it is on the checklist is because you would be shocked at how many people just forget to do this.

I find that using a spellchecker before you get into your revisions and edits is a good way to sort of “set the mood” for the next phase of your project. It’s a lot like lacing up your shoes before a run—you’re taking a specific action that doesn’t take a lot of effort to get yourself primed for what follows.

When to use a spellchecker

Can you use a spellchecker to edit your novel immediately after you finish writing it?

Sure.

I think that either is fine, but they both sort of serve different functions. If you use the spellchecker immediately after you finish, it’s a good way to add a feeling of closure to the writing process. It’s very important though to make sure that you’re not lured into the “I’ll just fix this one little thing” trap, because that can be a slippery slope that leads to “well, my book sucks so I need to rewrite half of it right now”.

That’s why I recommend using it as a jumping-off point to start your self edit as opposed to after writing.

Like I said, either is fine, but make sure you’re not getting pulled back into the writing process. You need the writing to stop before revising and editing your novel can start.

4. Read your book out loud

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Reading your novel out loud is one of the best things that you can do in order to self edit your work. The human brain is very good at filling in the blanks or erasing strange inconsistencies from what it sees.

When you read out loud, you force the brain to slow down and process each individual word. Doing this makes sure that missing words are spotted and words that don’t make sense are identified.

Another choice that you may have available to you is to use a text-to-speech option (MS Word, Macs, etc., have some variation of this sort of program). If you don’t mind the slightly robotic sounding voices, this can help you avoid the dry mouth you’ll have after reading your novel out loud.

Another major benefit that you’ll find with this technique is that you’ll actually hear what things sound like.

Take notes while you’re reading

Related to hearing what things sound like, you’ll be able to make decisions about things you might have been unsure about. Do two characters have names that write differently (Cassie and Kathy) but sound really similar? Keeping a pen and a pad of paper (or cue cards, or Post-it notes) handy will let you quickly identify these points for review, reflection, and possible revision.

Remember, you’re not making final decisions here. Taking more notes and ignoring what you don't need to fix later is better than not taking enough notes and missing something.

“Keeping a pen and a pad of paper (or cue cards, or Post-Its) handy will let you quickly identify these points for review, reflection, and possible revision.”

5. Review your notes

One of the most important things on any self editing checklist is the review process.

But it’s so important to have a system for reviewing your notes.

A good review starts with good organization and if you’re using a pad of paper and a pen (this is my preferred method) the easiest way to differentiate your notes is to use highlighters. You might have a system that looks like this:

• yellow - grammar;

• pink - plot related;

• green - character inconsistency;

• blue - plot hole.

What specific system you use doesn’t matter nearly as much as having one in the first place. It becomes much easier to go through your notes when you can organize them. Other methods include:

• Using Post-it notes;

• Organizing notes with cue cards and putting them into groups based on the issue;

• Making a check list for each chapter and including all the issues so that you can check them off when they’re resolved.

Like I said, the method doesn’t matter nearly as much as having one that works for you.

6. Revise (then go back to Step 3)

Now is a good time to clarify the difference between “revise” and “edit”. You’ll find that both of these terms are largely used interchangeably, and, for the most part, it won't matter too much which you use.

Internalizing your process as “I’m revising” or “I’m editing” doesn’t make much of a difference.

The difference between the two terms can be clarified with the ARMS and CUPS method. I wish I knew where these came from, because I’d give that person (people) a pat on the back.

Revisions (ARMS)
- Adding, Removing, Moving, Substituting

Edits (CUPS)
- Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling

In a practical sense, you’re effectively doing all of these things when you’re doing revisions/edits (hopefully not at the same time, because it helps to stay focused on one set of issues before moving on to the next).

Once you’ve completed your edits, you go back to Step 3—use spellchecker.

Repeat this process until you’re satisfied with where you are.

Congratulations, you’ve completed the self edit of your book!

What next?

Here’s where there are a lot of choices. Depending on what your plans are for your book, you might want to consider getting an alpha reader/beta reader, hiring an editor, putting the book out for submission, or look into self-publishing. We’ll definitely be covering this in the future, so watch this space.

If you’re not sure what the difference between these different editors are, I do a deeper dive into editors in another article.

Good luck self editing your book.