Self-Editing Your Novel: What to Fix First

You've finished your first draft. You've let it sit for a few weeks (you did let it sit, right?). Now you open the manuscript for the first time, start reading, and the same thought hits every novelist at this stage: "This needs a lot of work."

That thought is correct. Every first draft needs substantial revision. The question isn't whether to revise - it's where to start. And the answer matters more than you'd think, because editing in the wrong order wastes enormous amounts of time.

Here's the principle: always fix big problems before small ones. There's no point polishing the prose in a chapter you might cut. There's no point perfecting dialogue in a scene that needs to be completely rewritten. Revision works from the outside in, from structure to sentences.

The Revision Hierarchy

Think of your manuscript as a building. You wouldn't choose paint colors while the walls are still in the wrong place. The same logic applies to editing:

Structural editing - Is the story shaped right?
Scene-level editing - Does each scene earn its place?
Character and dialogue - Are the people real?
Line editing - Is the prose itself working?
Proofreading - Are the details correct?

Each pass builds on the one before. Let's walk through them.

Pass 1: Structure

This is the most important pass and the one most self-editing writers skip. Structural editing asks whether the bones of your story are sound.

Read the whole manuscript in one or two sittings

Before you change a single word, read the entire draft as quickly as possible. Don't edit. Don't make notes in the margins. Just read, the way a reader would. Pay attention to where you get bored, where you get confused, and where you feel emotionally engaged.

After you finish, sit with the manuscript for a day. Then write down your overall impressions: What's working? What isn't? Where does the story lose energy? Where does it feel rushed?

Check your story's shape

Every novel has a shape - a pattern of rising and falling tension that carries the reader from beginning to end. Common structural problems include:

The inciting incident comes too late. If your protagonist's world doesn't get disrupted until chapter five, you've got too much setup. Most novels need the inciting incident in the first 10-15% of the manuscript.
The middle sags. The most common structural problem in fiction. The middle needs its own arc - rising complications, a significant midpoint shift, and escalating stakes that push toward the climax.
The climax is rushed. Writers often sprint through the ending because they can finally see the finish line. But the climax is what the entire book has been building toward - it deserves room to breathe.
Subplots don't connect. Every subplot should intersect with the main plot in a meaningful way. If a subplot could be removed without affecting the main story, it's either underdeveloped or unnecessary.

Be willing to cut and rearrange

Structural editing sometimes means cutting entire chapters, combining characters, or rearranging the timeline. This is painful. You may need to delete scenes you love because they don't serve the story. Welcome to writing.

A useful trick: before deleting anything, move it to a separate "cut material" document. It's easier to cut something when you know it's not gone forever. (In practice, you almost never put cut material back. But the safety net helps psychologically.)

Pass 2: Scenes

Once the overall structure is sound, zoom in to the scene level. Every scene in your novel should accomplish at least one of these things - and ideally two or three:

Advance the plot. Something changes. The situation at the end of the scene is different from the situation at the beginning.
Reveal character. We learn something new about a character through their choices, reactions, or interactions.
Raise the stakes. The consequences of failure become clearer or more severe.
Deliver information. The reader (or a character) learns something they need to know.

If a scene doesn't do any of these things, it needs to be cut or merged with another scene. If it does only one, consider whether it can do more.

Scene openings and exits

A common scene-level problem is entering too early and leaving too late. Most scenes should start as close to the conflict as possible and end shortly after the turning point. Cut the small talk at the beginning. Cut the wind-down at the end. Trust the reader to fill in the gaps.

Scene-level pacing

Read each scene and ask: does this feel the right length? Scenes that feel too long usually contain unnecessary description, redundant dialogue, or internal monologue that repeats what the reader already knows. Scenes that feel too short may be missing the sensory details and emotional beats that make a moment feel real.

Pass 3: Character and Dialogue

With structure and scenes in place, turn your attention to the people in your story.

Character consistency

Read the manuscript tracking one character at a time. Does their behavior make sense throughout? Do their decisions follow from their established personality and motivations? Are there moments where they act out of character without sufficient justification?

Look especially for characters whose personalities change to suit the plot. If your protagonist is cautious for the first half of the book but suddenly becomes reckless because the plot needs them to be, you have a consistency problem. The fix is usually to either adjust the character's baseline personality or to add a scene that justifies the shift.

Dialogue that sounds like speech

Read all of your dialogue out loud. Literally. You'll immediately hear lines that sound like writing rather than speaking. Real speech is messy, interrupted, indirect. People don't give speeches to each other. They talk over each other, avoid the point, say one thing when they mean another.

Common dialogue problems:

Info-dumping through dialogue. Characters telling each other things they both already know, purely for the reader's benefit. ("As you know, Dr. Smith, the virus was first detected in 2019...")
Characters who all sound the same. Different people use different vocabularies, different sentence lengths, different verbal tics. A teenager doesn't speak like a professor. A soldier doesn't speak like a poet.
Dialogue tags. "Said" is almost always the right choice. "Exclaimed," "proclaimed," "uttered," and "opined" draw attention to themselves. Let the dialogue itself convey the tone.
Missing subtext. The most interesting dialogue is when characters mean something different from what they say. If every character always says exactly what they're thinking, the dialogue will feel flat.

Supporting characters

Check that each supporting character serves a distinct purpose. Do you have two characters who fill the same role? Consider combining them. Does every important relationship feel specific - not just "friend" or "love interest" but a relationship with its own texture and tension?

Pass 4: Line Editing

Now - and only now - it's time to work at the sentence level. Line editing is about making every sentence as clear, vivid, and purposeful as it can be.

Show vs. tell

The most common line-level issue in fiction. Showing vs. telling isn't about eliminating all telling - some telling is necessary for pacing and efficiency. It's about recognizing the moments that deserve to be dramatized and making sure you're dramatizing them.

Key moments to show: emotional turning points, character-defining decisions, and any scene that carries significant weight for the plot. You can tell transitional moments, minor actions, and the passage of time.

Cut unnecessary words

Most first drafts are 10-20% too long, and the excess is distributed across every page in the form of:

Redundant adjectives and adverbs. "She whispered quietly" - whispering is already quiet. "He clenched his fists angrily" - clenching fists already implies anger.
Filter words. "She noticed that the room was cold" → "The room was cold." "He realized he was lost" → "He was lost." Filter words add a layer of distance between the reader and the experience.
Throat-clearing. Sentences that exist to set up the real sentence. "It's important to note that the castle was built in 1483" → "The castle was built in 1483."

Vary sentence structure

Read a paragraph aloud. If every sentence has the same length and structure (subject-verb-object, subject-verb-object), the rhythm becomes monotonous. Mix short punchy sentences with longer, more complex ones. Use fragments for emphasis. Let the rhythm of the prose mirror the emotional content - faster, choppier sentences for tension; longer, more flowing sentences for contemplation.

Kill your darlings

If a sentence or passage is beautifully written but doesn't serve the story, cut it. This is hard. Some of your best writing will be the writing that needs to go, because it calls attention to itself rather than serving the narrative. Save your darlings in that "cut material" file if it helps - but cut them.

Pass 5: Proofreading

The final pass is for surface-level errors: typos, misspellings, punctuation mistakes, inconsistent formatting, continuity errors (a character's eyes change color between chapters, the sun sets twice in one evening, a character appears in a scene after being established as being elsewhere).

Proofreading is the least creative part of revision but it matters. Nothing undermines a reader's confidence faster than obvious errors. Some tips:

Read the manuscript on a different device or in a different format (print it out, convert to PDF, read on a tablet).
Read backward, paragraph by paragraph. This prevents you from getting absorbed in the story and missing surface errors.
Keep a style sheet tracking character names, place names, and specific details so you can check for consistency.

When to Get Outside Eyes

Self-editing has limits. You are too close to your own work to see it clearly, no matter how many passes you make. At some point, you need outside readers.

Beta readers

Beta readers are non-professional readers who read your manuscript and provide feedback. They're invaluable for catching the problems you can't see: pacing issues, confusing passages, characters who aren't as sympathetic as you intended, plot holes you've been unconsciously stepping over.

Choose beta readers who match your target audience and who will be honest rather than kind. A beta reader who tells you everything is great is not helpful. A beta reader who tells you that chapter twelve lost them and they almost stopped reading is worth their weight in gold.

When to seek professional editing

If you're planning to query literary agents, your manuscript should be as polished as you can make it on your own and with beta reader feedback. Agents expect submission-ready manuscripts.

If you're self-publishing, professional editing isn't optional - it's essential. At minimum, hire a copyeditor. Ideally, invest in a developmental editor for structural feedback and a copyeditor for line-level polish.

The Revision Mindset

Revision isn't punishment for writing a bad first draft. It's the part of the process where the real book emerges. Most professional writers spend more time revising than drafting. Many describe revision as the part they enjoy most, because you're no longer working in the dark - you can see the story, and your job is to make it shine.

Approach each pass with curiosity rather than judgment. You're not fixing mistakes. You're discovering what the story wants to be.