Before starting the first edit

Hello again! I hope 2022 treated you well, and that 2023 will be even better!

I'm actually in the middle of a short break in my writing right now, but that does not mean I don't still have a few things to get done before I start editing! I thought I'd use today to share a few tricks I'll be using to make sure my first edit goes as smoothly as possible.

1. Starting the action list.

I know I've spoken about my action list before, but just in case you missed it. My action list is a list of items I need to get fixed, edited, or tweaked, it can be as general as "fix story tone" or as specific as "fix meal discrepancy in chapter 3" but it gives me something to refer back to. With this story I actually started my action list before I even finished my first draft, starting with a few issues I knew I would need to correct later, so I won't end up wasting time and energy trying to remember all these things later. 

2. One clean read-through. 

Closely related to the first point, I'll be making sure to get one good read-through on my draft before beginning to edit, and I'm asking my Alpha reader to do the same. Once we're done, hopefully, I'll be able to add to, and refine my action list even more!

3. A little time off goes a long way. 

I always take a little time away from my draft before turning to editing. I used to really need this time to get some mental distance from my draft and open up my mind about tweaking the book I'd spent endless hours on. Nowadays, I'm a lot more comfortable breaking apart my draft, as I know exactly how rewarding editing is, but taking a little time to let my imagination breathe is still so helpful. 

4. Cleaning the action list. 

I know this sounds tedious, and quite frankly, it is... BUT it is more helpful than I can possibly hope to articulate. My action list is always a mess when it's first finished, with items out of order, or even a little hard to reread. Taking a little time to get it organized (in chronological order) and laid out in my program of choice (I use Google Tasks because it hooks directly into Google Docs, so I don't need to go looking for it.) saves me a lot of fuss in the long run. 

That's it for me for this week! What tricks do you use to make sure your first edit goes as smoothly as possible? Feel free to share below, so we can learn together!

Have a great day, and keep writing!