A few weeks back I finished my first round of edits for a novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo. I have taken a fairly solid break to focus on other projects, to watch some really good movies and read some really good books. But now I’m getting ready for the next round of exits! In preparation, I reviewed the series of blog posts I wrote during the first round. Here are the ten best pieces of advice I have for editing a novel.

1. When you stop writing/editing for the day always stop at a section where you have a solid idea of what’s going to happen next. Maybe even stop mid-sentence.
2. Look at the beginning and endings of chapters to see where you can cut the fat. Where is the latest we can enter a scene and earliest we can leave?
3. If you’re stuck editing your novel, just write about what else is going on in the character’s life. What seemingly mundane crap are they living with that might (ironically) make them more interesting? You’ll cut a lot but that’s okay, it’ll give you a stronger grasp on your characters’ personalities.
4. Make your writing/editing space as comfortable as possible. The more comfortable your environment the easier it will be to be creative.
5. Every scene/chapter needs a point. The character’s situation needs to change in one way or another. Describing an aspect of a character’s life doesn’t warrant a chapter.
6. Know when to move on. Just because you’re editing doesn’t mean what your writing has to 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.
7. 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 sacrificing writing time in the future in order to catch up on chores/exercise/life stuff.
8. Exercise gets ideas flowing, just as long as you don’t exhaust yourself.
9. As you write/edit make a list of things you need to research.
10. Consider meditating before writing.

BONUS! Time spent writing and editing is important but you also need to set time aside to research and query agents and small publishers. I highly recommend using Duotrope or just going to your local library and checking out the publishers/agents behind books similar to yours.