I’m spending the next few months editing a novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2021. My goal is to edit 10,000 words per week. Some chapters will need slight tweaks, others will need total rewrites. For each day I work I will record what I accomplished and share tips.

WEEK 1 – WEEK 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5

Monday

Editing my NaNoWrimo novel didn’t start off the best this week. I failed to reach my goal in the morning but just as I was returning to it in the evening, my wife called me into the living room. We could hear the sound of little rodent-like feet scurrying between the floors. Either a rat or a squirrel had gotten into the house. Of course the cats were going nuts.

Needless to say I didn’t reach my editing goal, but we spent some quality time searching for live traps.

Tuesday

I’ve reached a part of the manuscript where the next couple chapters feel solid. They’re not perfect but they don’t need the amount of attention the surrounding chapters do. I’m skipping this section for now and will return to it in later drafts. On to rougher waters!

Also my wife and I put catch and release traps in the attic hoping to apprehend our little friend. So far we haven’t heard any sound of what we’re assuming is a squirrel. They probably found their way out.

Wednesday

At this point I feel like the novel is filled with chunks that are very solid. However, I’m not 100% certain about the order or the sections connecting them.

I went back and rewrote the outline this morning. I literally just opened a fresh Microsoft Word Document and started typing out the outline word for word. As I went I realized new things about the characters and how the major events affect one another.

Thursday

Work was delayed three hours because of the weather. I had lots of time for novel editing. In some ways it was too much time. There were moments when I had trouble focusing so I took breaks to exercise. I’m not enthusiastic about running in the winter so I did some light dumbbell exercises. Even after a few minutes, this is usually enough to help me concentrate.

Friday

I’m currently all caught up with where I was when I went back to start re-editing. For now the second half of the novel feels more solid, but we’ll see if I feel the same when I dive into it next week.

We continue to check the live traps

Novel Editing Takeaways

1. When planning your weekly goals, give your schedule some padding. Squirrels might attack your home at any moment.
2. During those first rounds of editing, skip the sections that aren’t as rough. Save the chapters that only need line editing for later run-throughs.
3. When stuck, go back to the outline and just start writing it out again. I know this feels like a step back, but writing it over will give you a quick run-through of the story and new elements will become apparent.
4. Beware having too much time on a particular day. I know this is not a problem for many of us, but if you feel like you have all day to write you won’t have the fire under your butt to get stuff done and you could end up feeling distracted or focusing on chores that could be done later.
5. Exercise gets ideas flowing, just as long as you don’t exhaust yourself.