Hope you have definitely liked our previous post on Proofreading and Editing a manuscript. In this post you will learn about something bigger and by bigger I mean level two of editing. If you are very serious about your book, you should read this post carefully to learn about comprehensive/developmental editing and how important it is if you are going to pitch your book to a publisher or an agent. So here you go.
- This level of editing doesn’t look into the grammar of your book. This is more concerned about the plot and the structure of your writing, the character development, and the setting. These are very important aspect that one should take care of right from the beginning of the novel.
- In case you were inexperienced and have finished writing the novel but these things were missed out, you have to do a lot of work.
- Firstly, you have to find out if all the characters have been developed properly which means if they are playing an important role in the novel, they should serve the purpose. So in comprehensive editing, the character is developed.
- Next comes the plot. One plot can have several sub-plots and the plots should be well knitted in order to make sense. Many novice writers miss this point and their plots are not connected to each other which is not a good sign at all.
- Next comes the Setting. This means the scene where the characters are set. Make sure that you give proper setting to each scene because setting matters a lot and no scene can happen without a setting. It is very necessary to give a vivid description of the setting to create the mood in the writing. For example: If you want to show that two characters having dinner together, you have to describe the place where they are having dinner, including the clothes they are wearing. And if it is evening or afternoon or if the weather is affecting their mood.
- Now when you have done all these things properly, you have to focus on your sentence structure. The presentation the story matters a lot. A poor presentation ruins the whole story even if the novel has strong plot, character and the settings.
- As a writer you might not have so much expertise in developing a novel because it depends on the level of knowledge and understanding. You can never see your mistakes or lacunae until you become a third person and judge your work. Therefore, it is always advisable to get a professional editor to edit your novel.
- Developmental editing is not something like copyediting and everyone cannot do it, so if you are serious about your book and want it to be read and reviewed by the newspapers, be sure the manuscript has passed all levels of editing.
Thank you.