The Difference Between Editing and Revising a Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes an updated look at the difference between editing and revising. And for a deeper look on same theme, Jami Gold just wrote about this as well (which is what inspired me to pull mine out of the archives for this week). Enjoy! 

You often hear "edit" and "revise" used interchangeably, but it's helpful to think of them as two different things, because they really do focus on different aspects of the process.

Editing is the line by line tweaks that polish your text. 

Revision is more macro level, changing parts of the story. 

Which do you do first? I revise first, because that covers the big issues. The things that may take a lot of work. Once the story is unfolding how I want, then I edit, polishing it until it shines. For example, there’s no need to polish the text of a paragraph if I might cut that entire scene. Makes more sense to wait until the story is solid.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com