Taming the Draft: Self-Editing (Part Two)

In my last post, I talked about how to start the sometimes overwhelming task of editing your novel. It’s a lot. It’s okay if you drag your feet, scream into the void, binge watch Schitt’s Creek, or play 5,000 hours of Animal Crossing to procrastinate editing your book. But eventually, you’re going to have to come back to it. 

And when you do, you’ll be ready. You’ve already reread the whole thing. You’ve jotted some notes, maybe made some highlights on parts that made you cock your head and say, “huh?” 

Now comes the part I used to hate. Big picture edits. 

Big Picture Edits

Typos are easy. Developmental editing is hard. But this is where you need to get to the meat and potatoes of your book. 

• Does it hold together?
• Do my characters have goals and motivations?
• Is there relevance to the entire thing?

I used to skip this part. (Don’t judge—I’m a “press the easy button” kind of person.) I loved going straight to line editing because fixing a comma problem or an errant “hse siad” is far easier than spotting structural problems. 

But if your foundation is crooked, painting the walls doesn’t do anything. 

In this pass, you need to be able to distill exactly what your story is about. Not all the things that happen, but exactly what the story really about. What is the core conflict? What is the emotional arc of the character?

Core questions to ask include:

Do your main characters want something? 

Their desire drives the story. If your main character isn’t in search of something—world peace, a relationship with the good-looking woodworker next door, saving their family from a plant-destroying asteroid—then what’s the point? 

Is there momentum? 

In this pass, I like to look for scenes that don’t have a purpose or characters who were introduced but whose storylines didn’t wrap up. 

Are there any loose threads? Have I tied up every subplot I introduced? 

Chekov’s smoking gun is a famous example, but loose ends come in the form of any plot device you introduced and never resolved. Why did you make a point of noting that the barista of your main character’s favorite coffee shop is trying to decide if they should quit to follow their dream of becoming a tiny-home Instagram influencer if you’re never going to tell the reader how they end up? 

Finally, here’s a little gift to Future You: 

If you didn’t make a style sheet while drafting, now’s the perfect time. A style sheet is simply a document that lists every character, setting, business name, type of car people drive, dog, job, and some much more. Every author should have one for every book. If you didn’t start with one, write one now. Or use StoryBilder and keep track of all these things as you go. It will change your life, I promise. 

Big-picture edits can be overwhelming, so I try to focus on just one or two major goals per revision. Maybe this pass is all about clarifying the character arc. Maybe it’s about trimming scenes that don’t serve the plot. You don’t have to fix everything at once.

Next time, I’ll dig into line-level edits—what to look for, how to tighten your sentences, choose stronger words, and find the rhythm in your narrative. But remember you can’t polish something that isn’t structurally sound. Get the structure solid and next time, we’ll tackle the décor.