I hope this doesn't take you guys off topic, but do any of you fine fellows have any tips on self-editing? I'm trying to fix up my NaNoWriMo novel, but I'm the only one available to read it and edit it. How do you folks edit your novels?

Welcome to Narnia Web marshmellow-clouds.

Speaking from personal experience, here is what I did. If you have a few friends who'd be interested in reading it just for general feedback, that would really help. Getting an outsider's opinion always helps. But I did the actual editing myself.

When you edit, ask yourself these sets of questions:
1). Does this scene, paragraph, dialogue sequence add to the story?
2). Does it help develop the scene, the culture, reveal things about the characters? If so, is there a way to re-word it to make it simipler while still saying the same thing? If not, delete it.
3). Are your actions passive or active (he was walking quickly when... vs as he ran...)?
4). Could someone else picture your setting? This could be done with few words like CS Lewis or many like Tolkien. But you need a set of key words that will put a bunch of images in your reader's mind.
5). If you have action scenes, do the action scenes reveal things about the characters involved or do they advance the plot? I struggled with this early, by having too many actions scenes that are just there without doing anything beneficial to the story.

This should get you started. I'll probably think of more later. It might be an idea to set it aside for a while and come back to it with a fresh mind.

Wow, thank so much! I'm going to copy and paste those so that I can print them out! It will help so much when I start to edit my rough draft!

I'll echo Fencer's welcome to the forum, marshmellow-clouds! Glad you're here.

Fencer, that's excellent advice you've offered above. I'll keep those tips in mind when I begin the 'real' editing of my story.

I had a couple other thoughts that might be helpful for those beginning the editing process.

The first, at the risk of stating the obvious, is to proofread for grammar, spelling, etc. Sounds pretty boring - yet a grammatically-clean manuscript can't hurt. Spellcheckers help but don't always catch things like your and you're, they're, there, and their, and so on. Another bit of grammar-geek advice is to make sure things match up - like verb tenses, or cases (plural nouns go with plural verb forms, etc).

Another, more-interesting bit is to watch for the right balance between descriptive prose and dialogue. While this can vary from writer to writer or even within the same story, generally it's best to avoid too much of either (at the expense of the other).

Similarly, look at how you handle exposition - those sometimes-lengthy descriptions of character backgrounds, your world (in the case of fantasy settings), background events that set up the story, etc. Does it come all at the beginning, in a sort of prologue? That can work sometimes (such as the scroll at the beginning of the original Star Wars movie) but perhaps there's a different way to deliver the information. Perhaps it may work to just deliver a little at a time, as needed to advance the plot and pique your readers' curiosity. I don't think there's a definitive right or wrong answer here; it's just another point to consider as you look at your writing.

I have learned not to trust spell/grammar check. Some times it helps, but as stargazer indicated, there is so much it doesn't. But be patient. In six drafts/editing phases of my first novel, I still haven't caught all the grammatical errors. It's a very tedious process, but it makes the manuscript so much more readable.

Some extra on exposition, not everything has to be done in a set of opening paragraphs to set the scene. Here is an example. Only in very few cases would you need to actually specify the time period in the manuscript. You can give clues like setting or technology or even dialect. My novel has two storylines in different time periods, one is modern day, the other is medieval. But I never say when. For the medieval setting, I describe swords, wagons, and lighting by laterns and torches. For the modern setting, I use modern technology like cell phones, texting, and internet to tell how recent the story is in the timeline.

You can use exposition to pass large periods of time in which nothing happens, but for the sake of journeys, just saying "For 20 days, they did this, and did that, but nothing happened" could definately be simplified. Use exposition briefly to set the scene, but use action, dialogue, and things like that to spread out the scene. Action can be used to describe the strength of characters. Dialogue can also be used to describe the situation.

The key with expostion is this phase "Show, don't tell". If you have a character that is trying to rescue someone from a burning building (regardless of time period), don't tell them the building is on fire with smoke filling the room. Make the reader feel the heat. Make them hear the groans of the building's structure. Make them understand the pain of smoke inhilation and the lack of air.

I'll say more later.

Thanks for the welcome. =)

My old way of editing a novel was just proof-reading (because I was too lazy to do anything more), so I'm very well-versed in that aspect of editing! *laugh* I always do have trouble with finding the right balance of descriptions and dialogue though. Although I never do state what exact time period is! There I got that one! Both of your tips will be a big help! Thanks so much!

As I expected, I finished the first draft to the sequel of my spiritual wafare saga, Battle Cry: Expanding the Kingdom of Heaven. It's a bit rough, a lot of it due to the fact that I wrote half of it last summer, had to put it aside for a couple months due to school, and finished during this winter break. I have at least three characters I want to more heavily develop as they grew into larger roles than I expected at first. But overall, I think my plot line has a very good basis and has great potential.

Now I want to set it aside for a little while, see how my school schedule is going to affect my free time, and wait for some feedback. I've already got two people lines up, one who has read the first novel and one who hasn't. That is good for me because that will give me the perspective I need to see how dependent I want the sequel to be on the first.

I'm also going to try to find out as soon as I can if I can get some of my finals moved so I can go to that Christian Writer's Conference in May.

I have done very little writing since NaNo, but I have been (trying) to do editing. No work's been done on The Dance, my 2009 NaNo book, but I have had some people read it and comment on it so I know where I'll be going when I do get down to editing it. The Princess of Nowhere is currently entering its seventh or eighth draft (I've now almost lost count!) and is getting much, much closer to where I want it to be. I just need to be ruthless this time: every other edit I've left in things that I really shouldn't have, and I need to get those parts out, or at least sorted. Still, though it's coming along slowly I have a pretty good idea where I'm going.

The only thing I don't like about editing is that I have another idea that I really want to write. However, I'm not allowed to! I need to finish both the other two first.

I was taking a look at Writer's Conferences and realized something big. The one I've been wanting to go to in Estes Park, Colorado in May is actually a day sooner than I thought. I thought it would be a Thursday-Sunday at the end of my Finals week, which would be managable. But it actually is a Wednesday-Saturday, which would require me to move three Finals to Monday and Tuesday (on top of the ones already scheduled then). So I will not be going to that one.

Instead, I have a possible alternative. There are two conferences on each side of my Spring Break that are two day events: one in Dallas, one in Oklahoma City. It would be about the same costs as the one in Colorado, only fewer hotel costs to spend. I have one month to decide (registration deadline is Feb 26th) but realistically speaking, if I were to go to a Writer's Conference this year, this is my chance. I will seriously consider doing the OK City one, because I won't have to make any class arrangements that way. I'll post my decision as that time gets closer.

Shameless bumping from the 3rd page.

While I have not done much writing in a while simply due to my school schedule, I have decided to attend the American Christian Writer's Conference in Oklahoma City, OK during my Spring Break. The conference is March 19,20, where I will get to hear about lots of tips and be able to speak with professionals about my novel. I'm really excited about this and am looking foward to seeing what God's going to do through it.

Speaking of writer's conferences, I'm going to be going to the Festival of Faith and Writing I mentioned on the last page...or the page before... ( http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/festival/ ) Are there any other NWebbers going there? I haven't been able to convince ANY of my friends to go, so far, even though they're all writers... XD

I'd love to go there, Mr. Anderson. I live right in town. I'll have to check if I'm free that weekend, but I think that I may just go! Should be fun.

I revised my novel summary, but I'm hesitant to look it over again. Nonetheless, I know that I have to. I'm going to go over it at least twice more- and then would anyone be open to reading it over and giving me some constructive criticism on it? It's about 35 microsoft word pages long, double-spaced.

That does sound fun, Mr. Anderson! I wish I could go!

Sweeet, I'd be willing to read some of it, if you'd like.

The reason for my posting this is mainly to get happy about my writing skills actually coming back after NaNo. I feel like such a loser, compared to the people who worked on another novel on December 1st but anyways... I guess I should go revise my NaNo novel now.

On a side note, I had mentioned some novel things and writing to my mom, and she mentioned some along the lines that she'd look into some early steps into getting something I've written published, so that was quite exciting! It's a premature dream for myself right now, I think, but I guess I'll quit abandoning writing now.

There is nothing wrong with taking time away from writing after NaNo, especially if you made the goal. That is no small feat. People get Writer's Burnout quite frequently after that kind of a run, so don't feel bad.

As for getting published, that sounds great, but please note that it is a long process. I know as I am going through it. But it also depends on what you want to do. If you don't care about a big audience and just want something published with your name on it, and only plan to pass it on to family and friends, then self-publishing or print-on-demand would be a good way to go. It is cheap for the most part, and you can get just as many books done as you need. But if you want a bigger audience, you are going to have a challenge, if you are a new author (which I am assuming you are) with nothing already done. It can still be done, but it won't be a walk in the park, persay.

Personally, I'm not trying to be the next Rowling, Peloni, Meyers, or other suddenly hot authors, but I definately do want to reach a wider audience than just the friends and family I have. Because my work would be in a Christian genre, I went through a screener, Writer's Edge Service, that did an excellent job at determining if my work was not only publishable but something that a publisher would actually review. I applied through them twice, getting rejected once, and accepted the second time. The first time, I got excellent feedback on what to work on and how to improve my writing. The second time, they loved it. From them, I heard from three publishers.

After talking with them, all three recommend print-on-demand services, but not really understanding the processes at the time, I held off. Besides, I couldn't justify using college funds to pay for it at the time. It was my talks with WinePress that really helped me understand the system more than I did then. They are still very interested in my novel, but I can't afford them at this time. I know a lot of people strongly recommend going for a traditional publisher, and that is my preferential way to go. But those traditional publishers have gotten big enough that few of them take unsolicited manuscripts (ie, you write to them requesting for them to review your manuscript). So getting a traditional publisher to simply take your manuscript, without an agent or an established successful book, is no easy feat.

After talking with WinePress and realizing I simply could not do what I wanted at that time (I now see why when my financial aid decided to give me a small pill), both WinePress and another publisher strongly suggested going to a Writer's Conference. I've wanted to go to one in Colorado for the last two years, but always had something else going on that week. I thought I'd have a chance this year, but it would force me to squeeze five Finals in two days...not smart. So I looked at ones during my Spring Break and the one in Oklahoma City stood out.

At this conference, I will have four consecutive sessions on fiction writing, a chance to have a one-on-one talk with a professional, get a few contacts, and a few other things as well. I don't know what God is going to do there, but I believe that this is the next step for me. And if I am walking the right path, God is going to put me in contact with the right person to point me right where I need to do. Will this mean my book will get published right away? I won't say that, but it will get me closer. Just four weeks away.

Thank-you for the encouragement, FencerforJesus. So I'm not alone!

As for getting published, that sounds great, but please note that it is a long process. I know as I am going through it. But it also depends on what you want to do. If you don't care about a big audience and just want something published with your name on it, and only plan to pass it on to family and friends, then self-publishing or print-on-demand would be a good way to go. It is cheap for the most part, and you can get just as many books done as you need. But if you want a bigger audience, you are going to have a challenge, if you are a new author (which I am assuming you are) with nothing already done. It can still be done, but it won't be a walk in the park, persay.

Mhm, I figured it would take a long time to do so, and I haven't even decided if I'm going to self-publish or go for something higher, yet... (But I hadn't known about self-publishing and print-on-demand, so thanks! ) Actually, I do have a few poems and short stories that I was taking into consideration for publishing (not my NaNo novel) that I've been piling up for a few months now, so I'll see which road I decide to take from there, I guess.