Self-Editing Basics

Don't go changing...unless you are a piece of writing.

Whatever you're writing — a novel, a memoir, an essay, a business proposal, a technical guide, a sonnet — something meaningful must shift in the space between the beginning and the end. It's true at the paragraph, scene, and sentence level, too. Write the change.

For clarity, I'll refer to all of these as "section."

Perhaps your reader enters a section confused about a concept and exits with understanding. Maybe they arrive skeptical of your argument and leave persuaded or at least willing to reconsider. Or the character begins with incomplete information and ends the section with some nugget of necessary information — which might be a red herring.

Or or or.

No matter what the change is or needs to be, readers need that transformation. It happens in domino effect, with one section leading to the next to the next and the next. Sections depend upon each other for that chain reaction, and yes, this is true even in nonlinear writing.

To put your writing to this test, start by figuring out what your character/reader has at the end that they didn't have at the start. Struggling to come up with something necessary, specific, and meaningful? You've found a section that asks "so what?"

If you're the outline type, try plotting what Section A either established or shifts to make Section B necessary, and the same for Section C and so on. If a section delivers the same value for a reader without the preceding section, you've found a weak link to strengthen.

In the transition space between sections, determine what your reader/character understands or believes or chooses to do. If the choice is static or nonexistent, you've found a place to infuse with more emotional weight.

And of course, if a section could simply poof in a cloud of smoke, ask yourself if anything important is lost. If not, just wave it away with the smoke.

Don't get too hung up on the connotative idea of change. We don't have to go from something red to something yellow. But readers/characters do need to arrive at the end of each section altered, even subtly, from the state they'd been in before, whether that's some kind of improvement or some kind of disappointment or just a shift in circumstance or perspective.

Tips Galore!