Just as painting can take more than one coat, even using the best of materials, our writing generally needs going over a few times before it’s ready for viewing. In this article, I will review three necessary phases of editing our fiction. In the first pass, we check for the essential elements in each scene. The second pass is a good time to check grammar and tighten our words. Next comes the polishing phase.

What I’m talking about is editing your novel after the hard part (for many of us) is done; getting that first (as Anne Lamott says) shitty draft on paper. (more…)