Josie asked Kellyn Roth:

Do you have any tips for editing a novel?

Kellyn Roth Well, first of all, it really helps to change the font of your document, print it out, or download it on your Kindle. Seeing it in a different format (or even a different font/size) can help a lot.

I also recommend trying to edit in stages. For instance, stage 1 for me is plot revisions. Stage 2 is character revisions (for character arc, character consistency, etc.), and stage 3 is one last overall revision.

Then you can move onto real editing ... starting with chapters/paragraphs, flow, how understandable it is, and working down to sentences, wording, grammar, etc. The last bit of editing is proofing.

The hardest thing in the world is to concentrate on one aspect of your book at a time. While writing is a sort of an art, editing is simply hard work. But you know you have the talents to do so - you wrote a book, after all! That's a huge accomplishment! - and it can be done. It's just hard. One could argue that it's tougher than writing, though many would disagree with me.

It also really helps to have fellow authors, friends, and even family (though you don't want to rely on those closest to you always) read and critique your work. Even a non-author can tell you what their opinion of the work is, though I think it's best to have a couple other writers take a look-see at it.

I don't know when it's best to have people look at it. Most have alpha- and beta-readers ... and sometimes they even hire professional editors/proofreaders. I usually ask for alpha-readers (while I'm working on the second draft) and beta-readers (after I get the book into its final form and I only have some more basic editing to get through).

I hope this helped! :)

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