I’m spending the next month or so editing a novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2021. My goal is to edit 10,000 words per week. Some chapters will need just slight tweaks, others will need total rewrites. For each day I work I will (briefly) record what I accomplished and share tips. WEEK 1 – WEEK 2 – Week 3

Monday

Because of the snow, the library where I work opened late today, and I got to edit an hour linger than usual. I’m currently focusing on a flashback chapter, but I’m thinking that starting tomorrow I’ll need to skip back to “modern day” and work more on the main story line before I spend more time focusing on the past.

My wife and I have a tradition where we run around barefoot in the backyard after the first snowfall. Unfortunately we didn’t get enough to cushion our feet from roots and rocks.

Tuesday

I hate to say this but I think I’m going to have to reduce the amount of time I spend editing each day. I’m reaching my daily goals no problem, but I’m behind in other aspects of my life (like eating breakfast). I think I should still be able to edit 10K words a week. As much as I’d love to spend all my free time focusing on my writing, that’s just not realistic.

Wednesday

One work around from the problem I mentioned yesterday, is I’ve stared editing at night. I haven’t had much luck with that in the past (I’m usually a pre-dawn writer). However, if I keep my evening goals small, I’m usually able to give myself a solid hour before calling it a night.

I’ve also started listening to Coffee Shop Music. I’m not at all into easy listening (who is?) but this background noise has actually helped me concentrate.

Thursday

So I hate to do this but I’m considering going back and re-editing some sections. My goal was to edit straight through and not look back, but I’ve reached a point where I’m giving myself so many notes as to what to change on previously edited chapters that I’m losing track of which characters are where and the scenes no longer feel organic. I don’t like the idea of continuously re-editing the same chapters but I have to trust I won’t fall into that trap.

Friday

So I’ve decided to go back and re-edit some earlier scenes. I actually made a ton of progress today alone. I’m trying to just stick to what changes I’ve already noted and then moving on. This isn’t a line edit, it’s just a way to make the story feel more solid.

Also we got a bunch more snow, another delayed opening, but sadly we still haven’t gotten a chance to run around barefoot.

Since it was a Friday night I didn’t edit this evening. Instead I watched the movie Pig which was incredible. It was basically John Wick meets Ratatouille (except it’s much better than that sounds).

Takeaways

1. Know when to move on. Just because you’re editing doesn’t mean what your writing should be 100% polished. During early edits, just make sure the story and characters are coming together. Don’t spend too much time on the little stuff quite yet.
2. Stick to how much time you set aside for writing/editing. If you spend all day on it you’ll fall behind in other parts of your life and will end up sacrifice writing time in the future in order to catch up on chores/exercise/life stuff.
3. Try listening to different types of music. I would’ve never guessed easy listening would help me write but here we are.
4. Think outside the box in terms of when your write. I would’ve never guessed I would have made real headway in the evenings but here we are.
5. You will very often need to edit out of order. If one chapter just isn’t gelling skip ahead and see if you can figure out what is missing by focusing on that.