As writers, one of the most difficult parts of our job is the edit. Writing the first draft, it’s easy to get into the zone, so to speak. The world falls away and it’s just you and the manuscript. The phone goes unanswered, the cat goes unfed, the coffee gets cold, the house could be burning down around you, but nothing will distract from the writing. Draft two is a different story. You read over that first draft, and some things just aren’t working. A flat character here, plot holes there, a light sprinkling of cliché. It can be overwhelming.
But don’t fret, math can help you! Draft One is a one way street. You start, you focus, and you finish it. Draft two requires a little more finesse, a little problem solving. The mathematician George Polya developed a problem solving technique that works wonderfully for writers. Simple enough on the surface, this four step process has infinite applications:
Understand the Problem
Devise a Plan
Carry Out the Plan
Look Back Over the Results
Not too bad, eh? Hardly math at all really, and nothing you wouldn’t have done anyways, but writing it out will help you organize your editing. If nothing else, you’ll cut out a few hours of running around in panic.
Step One: Understand the Problem
Before you do anything else, you need to understand what in your novel needs work. Go ahead and give your manuscript a read through or two. Pick out the parts that aren’t sitting well with you, dialogue or actions that seem out of character, plot holes, continuity issues, anything that makes you stumble while you read it, and put these down on a list. Don’t worry about how you’re going to fix these yet. Worrying gives you wrinkles. Save that for later.
Step Two: Devise a Plan
Now look at your list and see if any of the problems are related. Does the same character act strangely throughout the novel? Are you seeing a lot of plot holes, maybe one particular subplot isn’t holding up well? Noticing a lot of dialogue that sounds choppy or unrealistic? These are your biggest issues. Circle these.
It’s time to organize your list. Take your circled issues and put them at the top, then separate the rest into categories. What categories you use is up to you, whatever makes sense to you. You may want to make one for character, one for plot, dialogue, world building, whatever it is that your manuscript needs.
Step Three: Carry Out the Plan
Trying to edit everything that’s not working at one time will only make your job harder. You want to make a few passes while you’re editing, focus on one thing at a time. That’s what the list is for. Work on your circled problems first. Start with the biggest problems and work your way down to the smallest. When you’re working on bigger problems, things tend to cut and changed and rearranged. If you’ve already meticulously edited every word in a passage that gets cut later, then you’ve wasted a lot of time, much better to make your cuts first.
Step Four: Look Back Over the Results
Once you work your way down to the bottom of the list, you should have a solid second draft. It’s time to give your manuscript another cover to cover read through. It’s probably not perfect yet. Your edits may have made more problems, or you may have missed some the first time through. That’s fine, just make another list and go through again.
The key here is not to get overwhelmed. Break your edits down into manageable chunks, and fix one thing at a time. You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache and a lot of work if you put in a little planning before you dive into your second draft.