You finally finished your manuscript (CONGRATS!), but now you’re staring at a pile of pages, wondering what on earth you’re supposed to do next.
You want to get your manuscript ready to submit to your dream agent, or publish independently — but you have so much work in front of you still, and you don’t know where to begin.
I get it. I do. There’s so much to consider.
Does your structure work? Are your characters believable and surprising? Do your scenes work, not just to build tension in your story, but to move your characters forward on their own journeys? And what about your world building? How have you woven time and place into your story to help underscore the meaning of what you’re trying to say?
Frankly, I got a little overwhelmed just typing that paragraph. No wonder you’re not even sure where to start!
Let’s get your mojo back.
My Dessert First! Developmental Editing process is designed to defeat revision paralysis and get you moving again. It’s based on my own revision practices, which I’ve honed and hammered out over my decades as a working writer in this space.
Dessert First! helps my writer clients push through editing confusion with precision and focus, and it helps them find joy and confidence in the revisions process, too.
Plus my Dessert First! program is replicable, time and time and time again. Not only will my program help you finish THIS book — but you will be able to use Dessert First! practices with every book in your future, too.
Here are three steps I lead my writers through when they hire me to edit their manuscripts.
Step 1: Get some distance.
Put the manuscript away for at least 30 days.
When you hire me as your developmental editor, I will start working on your manuscript right away. That’s my job.
Your job is to get some time away from your book.
I suggest at least 30 days distance to all my writers, and I put my own manuscripts in a drawer for at least 30 days when I’m between drafts, too.
Taking this time is important, because when you sit down to read your book and make decisions for how to revise it, you need to come to it with fresh eyes. In fact, you may forget a lot of what you’ve written after taking some time away from your book, and may return to your pages happily surprised!
Having said that:
You might consider taking an even longer break.
My dear friend Mark Sarvas recommends a six month hiatus.
That may sound extreme, but there is an internal logic here. Walking away from one project for six months give you time to brainstorm, outline, or even write a “shitty first draft” of the next one. Then you spend six months revising your first work, letting that second one breathe before you get back to it.
But don’t worry. I won’t make you wait six months for your edits. I guarantee a 30-day turn around for manuscripts under 100,000 words.
While I’m reading your work, focus your creative energies elsewhere.
When we start working together, I’ll ask you to make a list of at least five fun creative things you are going to do to refill your creative well while your book is in my hands.
Refilling the well is important for a couple of reasons.
First, you need to let your brain stretch and play and get loose after all the time you spent pointing your brain cells in the direction of imagining and executing on your manuscript.
Second, all that fun and tasty stuff helps put more intellectual distance between you and your book, which manifests, again, in fresh eyes for your pages.
What sort of things might you do to refill your well?
I generally try to write a short story, read a bunch of books I’ve been trying to get to, go to the movies (!), go see a concert or play, buy a great pair of shoes, visit a museum, catch up with friends over coffee or a drink, handle some home improvement projects that I’ve been yearning to handle. Things that I think will improve my frame of mind and spark joy.
Your list may look like that, or it may look entirely different — that’s completely up to you.
All that matters to me is that you commit to enjoying yourself.
I’m going to check in and make sure you do!
Step 2: Focus your pitch.
While I’m doing my first read of your manuscript, and you’re out refilling your well, I’ll also ask you draft a Quasi Query — a query letter to an imaginary agent, pitching the dream version of your book.
Quasi Queries are truly magical.
I use them myself, and I use them often — every time I start a new draft.
Focusing on your dream, in the compressed form of a query letter, really does help you get your dream written on the page.
So while I’m doing my first, blind read of your book, you’ll use my query worksheet to help you boil your book down to it’s essence, and write a Quasi Query of your own.
Your Quasi Query will be our north star.
I will check every scene, every character, and every plot development against your pitch, to be sure everything I am doing services your vision.
Then, when I deliver my edits to you, I’ll also give you notes on your Quasi Query, so you’ve got a query letter ready to go when you’re ready to bring your book to market.
Step 3: Get an actionable plan.
I work through all books in a careful, systematic manner.
✨ ✨ First, I note everything that’s working — and I make a big deal about all of it. ✨ ✨
When you’re in the weeds on the stuff that’s not working, you will want that list of great stuff right at the top of your notes to remind you that yes, you do know what you’re doing here!
Then, I start on structure.
There are certain elemental story ideas that audiences expect, and I’ll check to be sure you deliver those elements or have a really great way to subvert them.
Does your book build in tension? Do the stakes grow more significant as the story moves forward? Are there enough reversals, enough obstacles in the way of your characters?
Even small interior stories need to hit these marks. I’ll be checking to be sure you do.
Next I get cozy with your characters.
Character moves story, not the other way around. Your plot should be controlled by the decisions your characters make.
When I’m working through your book, I’ll be trying to answer the following questions:
Do the decisions your protagonist makes, make sense, from your character’s point of view? Do they move the story forward? Do they put your character in more danger as the story builds?
Are all your characters recognizable but still a little surprising? How are secondary characters helping or hindering your protagonist? How do your characters change, and why? Are those changes both believable and satisfying?
I’ll know your characters even better than you do when I’m done!
On to world building.
The great playwright Donald Freed, with whom I studied, said, “Meaning is entirely scenic.”
Simply put, your world impacts your story – and the meaning of your story is very much tied to your world.
When I’m reading your book, I’ll be making notes on where can you add more texture about time, place, history, culture. I’ll ask what meaning can we take from the world you used to tell your story.
Finally, I’ll read each scene the same way you might read the whole book.
I’ll check every scene for it’s internal structure and purpose – conflict, reversals, plot and character growth, world texture.
Any scene that isn’t helping you build the story you described in your logline or short pitch I’ll call out as a candidate for improvement, or the chopping block.
And any new scenes that occur to you while you make your edits should have to pass that test too!
When I’m done with my edits, you will have an actionable revision plan tailored to your goals for your book.
Yes, this is a pretty exhaustive process, and you might be wondering if everyone, even the most accomplished writers, go through such laborious and time consuming edits, every time they revise a book.
Absolutely they do – they just do it more quickly and efficiently with every project, because they’ve spent more time practicing their revision skills.
So will you, because I am radically clear about how I edit.
I walk my writers through every step of my process, so they can learn the skills they need to get more quickly and confidently through their revision process on every subsequent book they write.
OK, but how will you know when you’re done with your edits?
This is one of those questions that writers love to debate:
Is a book ever really done?
Yeah, we don’t play that game around here. We’re in it to get our stories to our readers, right?
That’s why, in my edit binder, I don’t only deliver actionable notes on your manuscript. I make notes on your Quasi Query, and I go one step further and share a synopsis worksheet with you, too.
When you think you’re done with your edits, use that worksheet to try writing a 500 word synopsis of what’s actually on the page.
If your synopsis is easy to write, and it’s a strong, compelling, character-driven representation of your story, you may be finished making edits!
And now you have a synopsis you can use when you’re trying to sell the book.
Work smarter not harder, am I right?
The Dessert First! Developmental Edit process makes the revision process fun and actionable.
In the Dessert First! Developmental Edit program, we guarantee that you’ll emerge with a plan to make confident changes, finish your edits, and ready your book for market.
And you’ll have a good time doing it, too!
Getting distance, filling the well, writing a Quasi Query, and focusing on what works before starting all the fixes — those efforts inject joy into this writing life, which is not always easy.
With Dessert First! we lean into the fun and tasty wherever we can.
Ready to make your revisions process fun and tasty? If you’d like to learn more about Dessert First! Developmental Editing, book a Power Hour. I want to hear all about your book. What do you love about it? What challenges are you facing? Let’s talk about your process, and my process, and get to know each other, too. All Dessert First! edits begin with a Power Hour. Why not get started today?
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