Work in passes, largest problems first. Each pass has one job, and doing them together is why self-editing usually stalls.
The order and the techniques below come from university writing centres, which publish this material freely and are more rigorous about it than most writing advice. The reasoning behind the order is in revision passes explained.
Pass 1: Structure
Build a reverse outline. Summarise each scene or chapter in one line, then read only those lines. Duke calls it "the Swiss army knife of revising".
Their diagnostics work both ways:
"If you find yourself having problems summing up the main ideas of a paragraph in one or two sentences, you probably have too many ideas in that paragraph... Alternately, sometimes summarizing a paragraph can be difficult because it contains too few ideas."
A summary noticeably longer than its neighbours flags an overloaded section.
- [ ] Does every scene earn its place, or does it repeat something already established?
- [ ] Does the order make sense, or does something arrive before what it depends on?
- [ ] Is anything missing between two scenes?
- [ ] Does the book start in the right place? First chapters are often warm-ups.
- [ ] Are chapters of "more or less consistent length"?
Pass 2: Scenes
- [ ] Does each scene change something? If nothing after it differs, it is not working.
- [ ] Is it clear who is speaking, where they are, and when?
- [ ] Does each scene run at story pace, or is it summary wearing a scene's clothes?
- [ ] Do viewpoint shifts happen at breaks rather than mid-scene?
- [ ] Is the tension in dialogue, or is everyone agreeing?
Pass 3: Language
George Mason's scale rule applies throughout, and it is the most useful line in this material:
"If a reader remarked that you didn't have enough evidence in paragraph three, you should also take a close look at paragraphs two and four."
One instance of a problem is usually a habit. Fix the instance, then search for the pattern.
- [ ] Read each scene aloud. If your tongue trips, so will the reader's attention.
- [ ] Hunt expletive constructions: "there is", "there are", "it is".
- [ ] Hunt "to be" verbs and replace where an action verb fits.
- [ ] Hunt intensifiers: very, really, extremely, definitely.
- [ ] Check sentence variety by marking a slash at each sentence end and looking at the shape.
- [ ] Check your own known tics. Everyone has three.
Detail in how to cut word count.
Pass 4: Consistency
- [ ] Search every character and place name and read the hits in sequence.
- [ ] Check the timeline as a list, separately from the prose.
- [ ] Verify physical details: eyes, ages, relationships, handedness.
- [ ] Re-check anything a cut scene used to establish.
Most continuity errors are introduced by revision rather than drafting, which is why this pass comes after the structural work rather than before it. See how to catch continuity errors.
Pass 5: Proofreading
Indiana University publishes the canonical four steps, and two carry their reasoning:
"Familiarize yourself with the errors you commonly make by looking over writing that has already been marked. Make a list of your errors, and check your writing for each of them."
"Carefully and slowly read your writing out loud. Often your ear will hear what your eye did not see."
"Read your writing, sentence by sentence, from the last sentence to the first sentence. This technique interrupts the logical flow of the prose and neutralizes any impression of correctness arising from your knowledge of what you meant to say."
That last clause is the whole reason self-proofreading fails: you read what you meant. Reading backwards breaks the sense that would otherwise carry you over the error.
Note the granularity distinction between sources. Backwards sentence by sentence catches grammar and fragments. Duke recommends backwards from the end of a line to the beginning for spelling specifically. Two techniques for two error classes.
- [ ] Read backwards, sentence by sentence.
- [ ] Read aloud, slowly.
- [ ] Check your personal error list.
- [ ] Do not trust the spell checker. Toronto: it "won't distinguish 'form' from 'from'", and grammar checkers "are seldom useful".
Before You Start
Let it cool. Toronto: "If you can let your original draft 'cool down' a while, you will find it easy to recognize unnecessary words and edit them out."
No source specifies how long, and any "wait two weeks" rule you have read is unsourced. The mechanism is losing your memory of what you intended, which is the same thing reading backwards achieves artificially.
Print it if you can. Toronto recommends it: "It's worthwhile to print out everything so that you can view the entire document."
What Deckle Does
The Outliner is the reverse outline for pass 1, already built from your synopses.
Snapshots before each pass make every change reversible, which is what allows you to try a structural cut rather than only consider one.
Revision colour mode marks what a pass has touched, so you can see coverage rather than guess at it. See marking a revision pass with colour.
Search across the manuscript runs passes 3 and 4: the mechanical hunts and the proper-noun sweeps.
The Codex and Timeline are what you check pass 4 against.
For where self-editing ends and professional editing begins, see developmental vs line vs copy editing.
Common Mistakes
- Doing all passes at once. Each pass has one job; combining them means none gets done.
- Starting with proofreading. You will proofread scenes you later cut.
- Editing on screen only. Print it, and read it aloud.
- Fixing one instance of a pattern. A note about one paragraph usually indicts its neighbours.
- Trusting the spell checker. It cannot distinguish "form" from "from".
- Waiting a fixed period before starting. No source specifies one; the point is losing your memory of intent.
FAQ
Q: How many editing passes should a draft get? A: No source specifies a number. What is specified is the order: structure before language.
Q: How long should I leave a draft before editing? A: No authority gives a period. Long enough that you no longer remember what you meant.
Q: Does reading backwards actually work? A: It "neutralizes any impression of correctness arising from your knowledge of what you meant to say", which is the failure mode of self-proofreading.
Q: Can I skip straight to line editing? A: Only if you have judged the structure sound. Duke explicitly permits it in that case.
Q: Is self-editing enough? A: It is not a substitute for an editor, but it stops you paying professional rates for problems you could have found.