Last week I shared my process on rewrites, and this week I want to move on to content edits. These are still major edits, but they can be addressed on a chapter-by-chapter basis since they deal more with scene edits than the overall story.
Definition
Content editing, also called developmental editing, is centered on correcting the story rather than the words. Do the characters act according to their beliefs and motivations? Is a subplot dropped part way through the book? Is a certain aspect of the magic system clear to the average reader? These are all small things that add up to a satisfying ending so it’s very important you address each area listed below.
The Process
When it comes to content edits, I like to do them all at once chapter by chapter. However, you can do these one by one for the whole manuscript as we did for the rewrite. It’s all about preference. I like to focus on one chapter arc at a time, making it the best possible before checking it off and moving to the next. It gives me a sense of progression to mark off a chapter, which helps motivate me to move forward.
Promise And Payoff
Every chapter should start with a promise. A hook that makes the reader wonder what will happen. The promise will engage the reader and get them invested in reading further for more information.
Likewise, every chapter must hold a payoff—answers to readers’ questions about plot or character backgrounds. It can be to the promise you led with or another promise made in a previous chapter. You can’t keep stringing along the reader without giving them answers or they will get frustrated and maybe quit reading. Giving them a payoff will increase their endorphins and their mood, which makes them want to keep reading.
You can have more than one promise and payoff in each chapter, but you must have at least one per chapter (or scene if your chapters are long) to hold the reader’s interest.
Emotion
Similar to how you improved the tone in your rewrite, you need to edit the emotions in each chapter. Label what the primary and secondary emotions of the chapter are and make those clear. Also, don’t let the primary emotion of chapters next to each other be all the same. If you have three suspenseful chapters, make the next one heartwarming. Emotional pacing is as important as plot pacing.
Normally, the emotions within a chapter will change. It can be tense at the beginning and romantic at the end, or tense then romantic and then back to tense at the end. The goal is not to let the book’s emotional pull grow stagnant. Change it up by using your secondary emotion to amplify the primary emotion and keep the reader’s feelings spinning.
Conflict
There are many sides to conflict that must be double-checked during editing. Here is a list of some areas I focus on for each chapter.
- Internal Conflict and External Conflict—Include at least one internal and external conflict in the chapter.
- Epic Conflict—Either the internal or the external conflict should relate back to or hint at the epic conflict. Remember, we want conflict in layers to make it feel deeper to the reader.
- Intensifying Conflict—Did you put your characters in a tough situation? There should be a struggle for the characters in each scene. Make their goal collide with a friend’s goal. Create a problem that challenges their beliefs. Don’t take it easy on them.
Once you have a tough conflict for them, make sure the conflict intensifies. Remember, the Yes, But and No, And formula for Try/Fail cycles is a good tool for intensifying conflict. Did they solve the issue? Yes, then make something else go wrong. No, then make something more go wrong.
Sensory Details
I mostly check for the KAV cycle (kinesthetic, audio, and visual details) for this section. I try to work in other senses like smell and taste in between cycles to get the widest impact. The more sensory details you can put into the chapter, the more the reader will get pulled into the story and keep reading.
Character Development
Character is like conflict in that it is multifaceted. There are a ton of questions to ask yourself to make sure your characters are staying true to themselves but also growing into someone else by the end of the book. Check the following to make sure your characters are well-developed.
- Dialogue—The characters need to have their own voices and way of speaking. They have different education levels, humor, religions, and interests. Make sure everything that’s said is sharp and full of personality. If you can read the dialogue and picture any of your characters saying it, then you didn’t do it right.
- Metaphors and Similes—Each character will have their favorite sayings and a worldview that gives them their own unique descriptions of things. Make sure your POV narrator and all the dialogue sticks with sayings the characters would use.
- Personality—The narration should be firmly set in the POV character’s viewpoint. There needs to be internal conflict, reactions, and observations that are unique to that character in every chapter.
- Goals—Every character has a goal, and it can change over the course of the book. Each chapter should address or allude to the characters’ evolving goals. Without a goal, there is no sense of progression. In order to feel that sense of accomplishment, the reader needs to know the character is getting closer to the finish line.
- Beliefs—Similarly, every character starts with certain beliefs about himself and the world. They are usually connected to the internal conflict. Every chapter needs to somehow show the characters’ steady or changing beliefs to show personal growth.
These are the five areas I check in each chapter for character development. There are certainly more to characters than this, but, in my experience, these are the areas that often get overlooked and may need specific attention while editing. Just a side note, make sure each character’s physical description and outfits are consistent throughout the book as well.
Final Thoughts
After finishing the content edits, you should have logical and fulfilling chapters. At the end of each chapter, I ask myself one more thing: is this chapter unique and exciting? If the answer is no, I need to jazz it up or delete it. Only the scenes that stand out will keep the reader’s attention. Once you have your chapters’ content fixed to the best of your ability, you should have a wonderful story that’s ready for one last round of polishing (well, the last round before giving it to an editor).
Thanks for reading!
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