Editing Tips for New Writers

I suggest starting by finding a traditionally published story you really love and deconstructing it. How many main characters does the author use in the scene? Too many main characters in a scene can be confusing if not written properly. Only use characters important to the scene. If it is a crowd, address all others as “the rest” or as a group. 

From who's POV (point of view) is the story told? Is it one character first person, past or present, dual POV, or omniscient? I don't advise using the last mentioned POV, as it is extremely difficult to write well. Most omniscient POV characters—unless written by a very skilled writer—come across as a bunch of talking heads, or the reader loses track of who's POV they are reading and become confused. 

 Check out your favorite published story chapter by chapter. Look for an intro, body, and open-end conclusion in every chapter as well as pacing. How quickly do the characters move from point A to B. Pacing is extremely important to keep readers engaged in the story. Discover how the author shows his or her character's actions and reactions. Note the difference when the author shows versus tells. Telling can be used when summarizing/paraphrasing an incident from another chapter, where a reminder is necessary, or replace insignificant, mundane dialogue. But keep it brief (a paragraph at most) as to not bog the reader down with facts they already know or insignificant details. 

What about back story? Does the author weave it into the story by using a sentence or two when the opportunity arises? One will rarely find paragraphs of backstory clumped on the pages of successful novels. 

 Use action tags rather than speech tags whenever possible. Action tag example: Keri scratched her head. “What did you say?” Use “said” whenever possible when speech tags are necessary as “said” is an invisible word. Speech tags like “he ordered,” “he announced,” “he proclaimed," pull the reader out of the story. 

Make sure every word or scene moves the story forward. Cut small talk and scenes if the story can remain intact if they disappear. If a paragraph, sentence, or conversation of dialogue was cut from your story, would it cause confusion? No? Then cut it. Would the story still make sense? If so, cut it. Add description into the action. (Example from a chapter I am writing: She moans and buries her face in my chest. I stroke the back of her head, and my finger gets caught in a tangle in her frizzled tresses, but I free it without pulling too hard.) Note how I used an action to weave a description of the heroine's appearance into the scene and also injected a tad of humor without being obvious. This is also an example of “showing.” 

Check out the dialogue. Is it every day mundane speech or does each word move the story forward? One word “Okays,” “Byes,” “Hi,”ect. are usually not necessary. Your character's voices will not come from small talk, and back and forth arguments or debates from characters over insignificant happenstance bore the reader. Does the dialogue sound natural or is it contrived to "feed" the reader information? Contrived dialogue is painfully obvious, and I personally find it annoying. If anyone points out in a critique thattt my dialogue sounds contrived, I'm quick to change it. Good luck with your current and future writing endeavors!