Effective Editing: How to Take Your Writing to the Next Level

Editing can be a daunting process, especially when you may be basing your decisions on common myths about revising your own work. Debunk these myths and discover the best methods to tackle your edits, after you've completed your rough draft. Along the way, Molly shows you how to hone your editor's eye and look at your own work more clearly.

As you begin your big-picture revisions, it's critical to first focus on how your story comes together and how it reflects what the protagonist wants. Here, Molly guides you to evaluate your story structure, pulling from examples like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to demonstrate how story beats propel your narrative forward.

Everything about narrative writing is centered on characters; so, it's crucial to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals who drive your story. To help you gauge the strength of your characters, Molly leads you through the four-part Protagonist Test, which gives you a foundation for improving your characters' motivations, flaws, and evolution throughout the story.

Point of view (POV) is the lens through which your readers experience your narrative. Here, you'll assess how well your POV is working. You'll learn how to determine what information to share and when to share it. You'll also learn how to untangle any problems with multiple POVs, if you use this technique, and how to explore the most common POV issues and how to fix them.

When is a good time to include a descriptive passage? How much information is too much or too little? Why does the middle of a story often become a slog? Molly answers these questions and more, examining common pacing dilemmas and walking you through the narrative techniques you can apply to speed up or slow down scenes, chapters, or entire acts of your story.

The ability to write great scenes can be one of your greatest strengths as a writer. Learn how to delineate your individual scenes and adjust the narrative bridges that connect them-as well as how to eliminate unnecessary "infodumps" along the way. End this editing phase with an important comparison between your opening and closing scenes.

"Show, don't tell" is popular writing advice doled out by professionals and amateurs alike. But what does it really mean to show rather than tell? And why is it important? Here, you'll learn how to determine when to show-using tools like action and dialogue-and when it's okay to simply tell the reader what they need to know.

Why does dialogue lifted directly from life sound so unrealistic and flat on the page? The truth is that dialogue is actually an extension of narrative action: It's far more than simple conversation. Here, Molly explores common problems with dialogue and interior monologue and shows you how to use both to effectively move your story forward and to develop your characters.

Get into the nitty-gritty details of line editing as you look at your work at the paragraph and sentence levels. First, you'll take a close look at your ideal reader, a crucial preparatory step before you can fine-tune your writing. Then, Molly shows you proven techniques to elevate your prose by considering three crucial elements: adverbs, adjectives, and verbs.