Where to Start a Story Edit

Step 1: Perform a Hands-Off Read-Through

A hands-off read-through means you read the story without making any changes.

Step 2: Name Every Scene

You can do this when you’re performing a hands-off read-through. A hands-off read-through means you read the story without making any changes, but you can and should make notes and name every scene.

When naming the scenes, find and label the inciting incident, plot point 1, the middle plot point, plot point 2, and the climax.

Step 3: Dig Deeper into the Story Arc Scenes

To write a skeleton synopsis at this stage, the following story elements for each story arc scene will help you set it up.

1. Scene Name
2. Point of View Character
3. Point of View Character’s Goal
4. Scene Middle
5. Scene Climax
6. Scene Impact on Point of View Character

Step 4: Create the Skeleton Synopsis

Now there are four clear steps to getting that skeleton synopsis done:

1. Reference the skeleton blurb.
2. Find the five Fictionary Story Arc scenes on the story arc.
3. List scene name, scene middle, scene climax and impact on point of view character for each of these scenes.
4. Summarize the ending showing the story’s resolution.

Step 5: Does the Draft Contain a Story?

The synopsis will help you determine if there is a story or not. You’ll find that if you can’t write the synopsis at this stage, then most likely the story is not finished. The attempt at writing a synopsis will highlight which portions of the story still need to be written.

If one of the 5 story arc scenes is missing, is in the wrong place, or doesn’t satisfy the requirements of a story scene, then there isn’t a story in the draft, yet.

It’s time to start revising the draft until the skeleton synopsis shows you there is a story. Once there is a story, you can move on to a full story edit.