How to Developmentally Edit Your Book, Yourself

Developmental Editing is tackled on a completed draft of your book. It is the big picture assessment that will let you, the writer, know:

• Does your story work?
• Will readers “get” it?
• Is there anything missing?
• Is this book EXACTLY what you want it to be?

You can find out how developmental editing differs from other levels of editing (copy editing/proofreading etc.) in this downloadable guide.

Investing in a professional for this review is ideal, because it’s hard to see what’s missing in your own writing (you know the story so well you’ll fill in the blanks), but you can also start this work yourself with a self assessment before you contact an editor.

In the past decade, I’ve developmentally edited 200+ books. In this article, I share the most important criteria I use to assess the big picture elements in a writer’s draft, along with some tips on how to gain perspective when evaluating your own draft. When I complete a developmental edit, I also have a series of criteria that I assess at a scene level, but generating this list of big picture opportunities will get you well on your way.

First Things First 

Your book is a unique expression of you, and any revisions you do should lean into your originality, not make it sound like everything else out there on the market. I never know what I’m going to find when I dive into a book from a technical perspective, but before I even look at that, I need to understand the writer’s intent so that I can tailor my advice. Before you try to assess your draft, answer these 3 questions:

• Why are you writing this particular book, at this particular moment in your life? What  was your first spark of inspiration? Write it out on a page or more, until you get a level deeper than your first instinct.

• What do you want readers to take away from your book? What do you want them to think, know or feel? Knowing this answer before you evaluate your work allows you to make sure everything you include in your book points readers in this direction.

• What does “success” look like for you? If your goal is to traditionally publish or sell millions of books, the level of detail you dive into in your self assessment and the amount of revision effort you put in will be higher than if your goal is to print it at Staples and only give copies to your grandkids. Both goals are valid, but be honest with your answer, and make sure you don’t sell yourself short. Most writers secretly hope that their book will be found, read, loved, and shared all over the world, and why wouldn’t you want that?

To evaluate your work honestly, you have to accept one truth.

It’s not luck when readers love a book. 

Your story and plot points are your own, and they’re probably great. But there are real writing skills you can apply to your draft that will make readers love your book even more. It’s the execution of your idea that will make readers love your book, and that’s what you’ll evaluate during this process. 

Gaining Perspective on Your Own Writing as You Read

When you read your book from end to end, you’ll see your work through rose colored glasses. You know your ideas inside and out, so you won’t notice if you’ve left something out of your pages, because your brain fills the details in anyway. To create some objectivity/distance, try these ideas:

• Let time pass. This is a terrific way to gain objectivity. But if your memory is strong like mine, you may need several months or years distance from your work to see it clearly, which isn’t always practical. If you want to publish in this decade, try one of the other techniques on this list!
• Change the device you read on. If you write on your laptop, read your draft on a tablet, or print it out. This simple change can make your book feel like someone else’s work.
• Change the font or color on your screen. Presto, you have a whole different book. It’s amazing that this works, but it does.
• Try a listening pass. Have your phone or computer read your work to you. Your ears won’t fill in gaps the way your eyes do. I walk outside when I listen to my own drafts, so I’m not tempted to edit as I go.

Evaluate Your Book’s Big Picture Opportunities 

Once you’ve reminded yourself of what’s in your book with an end to end read, without thinking too hard, evaluate and document your draft’s big picture with the following exercises:

1. Identify any issues you already know your draft has. Trust your gut and don’t ignore what you already know. If you know there’s a weaker part of your book, readers will see it too, even if you hope they don’t.

2. Create a summary of your whole book. In no more than 3 pages, summarize what happens in your entire book. You can use a synopsis structure, or any outlining method. Allocate no more than a few hours to this task. Be ruthless, and only include important scenes or events. This document is for your eyes only, no perfection required.

3. Test your book’s causation. Using the summary you created, test that every event causes the next one to happen, or interrupts the established pattern with a twist. If your summary sounds more like: and then this happens, and then this happens… you have a problem with your narrative drive, so take note.

4. Jot down the progression of your story. Check your summary to see that you have the basic points of a plot – a beginning, inciting incident, climax etc. This is basic, but when writing a complex novel, these points sometimes get missed, and your story will feel less satisfying to readers.  

5. What do your characters want? I ask this question so often of writers that I get sick of hearing myself. But you need to be able to answer this question right from page one. Their wants can change as the book progresses, as long as they want at least one thing at every step. If at any point your characters are killing time until they want something again, you’ve got work to do. Wanting something gives your characters agency. Without it? Readers will stop reading.

6. Map the progression for each major character. Where are your characters on their arc of change at the beginning of your draft, where do they end up, and what stages of change do you show along their journey? Create a bulleted list for your main character, all other Point of View (POV) characters, and any secondary characters that go through a change. Are you hitting at least 4-5 stages for each character as they change? Are you showing these stages somewhere in your scenes (in order of progression)? Keeping your characters progressing and changing is key to keeping readers engaged.

7. Map the progression of your worldbuilding. Have a complex magic system, political structure, or expansive settings? Worldbuilding is important in more than just Science Fiction or Fantasy genres. Pay attention to how you dole out details about your world as the book progresses. Treat these worldbuilding elements as a character and let them grow, adding to them as the book progresses for maximum impact on your reader. 

8. Make a list of any deficiencies you find above. Any notes you have are the places you’ll want to concentrate on your next revision pass.

What Now?

If you try to tackle everything on your big picture opportunity list, you’ll experience overwhelm, which is the brain’s way of dealing with too many things.

Choose the biggest opportunities to work on first. Select 2-3 Big Picture items max to address in your next revision pass.

That’s it.

If you still have opportunities you feel called to tackle once this work is done, you can complete this step again, and do another pass. But know that you don’t have to do it all. Many books get published that do not have all of the elements I teach. If you focus on 2-3 things to improve, and do them well, you’ll be well on your way.

Remember, you started writing this book for a reason. If you feel like sticking your draft in a drawer at any time during this process, revisit the WHY, and what you wanted readers to take away from your book that you determined in the First Things First section of this article above. Remind yourself why you’re writing this particular book at this particular moment in your life, and how you want readers to think, know, or feel when they experience your book.

At some point, you felt called to write this book. Readers out there are waiting for your story. Take the information you discover in this self assessment, make your book the strongest it can be, and then share it with the world.

One Stop for Writers has tools to help you edit your books!

One Stop for Writers is a powerhouse library of writing resources built to elevate storytelling. The goal is to provide everything a writer needs to create strong fiction so your time is spent crafting stories rather than searching for help. Here’s an overview of the site features.

Storyteller’s Roadmap

Story Maps

Worldbuilding Surveys

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