I spent much more time editing and revising my first novel, Glassworld: Out of the Darkness (Amazon link), than actually writing it. In the process, I noticed that not all edits or revisions are alike. This is an attempt to categorise the types of edit that I did and explain how they differ.
This information is most likely to be of use or interest to other novelists or writers of longer fiction, but it might be interesting to readers to see inside the process of polishing a novel at least from the perspective of this writer.
My categories fall into a reasonably clear hierarchy, so it makes sense to refer to them as levels and describe them starting from the most significant and working down. I'm going to refer to the work I did to create Glassworld to provide examples of the concepts I'm discussing. I have tried to avoid spoilers, but if you really don't want to know anything about the book in advance of reading it, you had better stop here. In that case, I suggest going to the index to choose something else to read!
1. Message-level Edit: To me, this is the top level because, perhaps ironically, the deepest motivator for me to write is to impart some kind of message. In my first draft of Glassworld, I managed to satisfy the wish to impart messages about authority but, in my eyes, that draft failed to get my environmental message across. Therefore, a fair proportion of the eighteen months I spent on my second draft was about developing and clarifying my environmental message. My message-level edits involved writing a new beginning to clarify that the world was disintegrating at the edge and developing the idea that the Device had caused much of the fabric of the world to crack.
2. Plot-level Edit: The plot is the backbone of the novel and comprises its major events or segments. This is the highest level element that actually describes the action of the book, but its fundamental purpose is to deliver the message, so plot-level content is inferior to message-level content. In some ways the plot operates obliquely to the message because it interfaces more closely with characters and actions. Nevertheless, the plot is relevant to the message because it broadly permits the writer to show how characters are affected by their circumstances, which may be a source of the message.
In my second draft of Glassworld, I created a new strand of plot in which First Citizen Solarquin inserts a recording device into Skantriftic to force them to become unwilling agents for the government. This was only partially a message-level edit because it only enhanced the message that power is corrupt, but it definitely forced me to alter and add to the sequence of events over the following eight chapters, almost a quarter of the book.
3. Story-level Edit: The story is essentially the details of how the plot is developed. It includes the specifics of which characters were in which places at what point in the novel. Plot and story are nearly synonymous in everyday language, so I'll try to detail what I think the difference is. The fact of Skantriftic and Stranshiftic travelling to the First Citizen's palace to demand an explanation for the descendance that destroys their Community Pod in Chapter I is plot. It's plot because it's the second significant event in the novel, evidenced by its taking from Chapter VI to Chapter XVII to be described. It's plot because any summary or synopsis of the novel would include it.
Whereas, their encounter with some officious guards who try to block their progress in Chapter XII is story. This is story because the related characters and events are fully contained within that chapter. It's story because it's just one of several events which demonstrate the arbitrary and cruel use of power in the novel. An example of a story-level edit would be when I took the dance festival in Aixh-Glsu-Mhellen in Chapter X and added the governmental attack which now takes place subsequently.
4. Character-level Edit: In this kind of novel, the characters serve the story rather than vice versa, so I think it makes sense to say a character-level edit is inferior to a story-level edit. In another type of novel, they might be structured differently. My addition of the scene where Skantriftic and Stranshiftic are seized and taken to the palace to meet First Citizen Solarquin, although it introduces Solarquin earlier in the book, is a story-level edit because its primary function is to satisfactorily conclude the second major plot element (the journey to the palace to deliver the petition). Whereas, my efforts to show that Mastatric felt betrayed by what they learned about the government in Chapters XXI and XXII were character-level edits. It was a character-level edit because it helped to explain how Mastatric became less didactic and more compliant towards the end of the novel.
5. Scene-level Edit: As scenes are the relatively non-dynamic locations in which characters appear and actions take place, we can say that the scenes serve the characters and other higher level parts of the novel and so take an inferior position in the hierarchy. In Chapter XXXIII, I decided to change the location where Skantriftic meets Ultrageldian into the reception room of the Society of Affectionate Companions, rather than the Union of Atmospheric Replenishers, which it had been previously. This had no impact on the novel other than to indicate that escorts existed in Glassworld and operated within the law. Therefore, it was a scene-level edit. I did slightly alter Ultrageldian's dialogue to reflect their different position, so there was a minor character-level edit involved here too.
6. Format-level Edit: Format is my word for how the story is presented at the lowest level of detail and it covers grammar, vocabulary, spelling and layout. Although a format-level edit is the lowest level of edit, it is probably the most time-consuming. One format-level edit involved ensuring that I had used -ward/-wards endings correctly through the book, i.e. 'forward-facing' but 'going forwards'. An example of a format-level edit would be my choice to change 'descend' for 'decline' at the beginning of Chapter XXII. I made this change to subtly indicate that the situation is worsening and that immorality is being exposed, so this is a format-level edit.
I hope these descriptions provide an interesting exploration of my perspective on editing and that I have clearly dealt with edge cases where they arose. If you have a different approach to editing, I'd love to hear about it. Please comment below!
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