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Now you’re in the right headspace, let’s take a leaf out of our checklist and run you through how to edit your own book: 1. How to edit your own book in 4 simple steps What kind of editing does your book need? And remember: if you wrote something amazing, you can do the same again - so don’t sweat it. Again, don’t stress: you can always file away your ‘deleted scenes’ in case you can use them later. Writers often hear the advice “ kill your darlings,” meaning that you should cut out any wonderful passages that don’t serve the bigger picture. (image: PBS) Understand that you’ll be cutting out some of your favorite parts Don't paint those happy trees until you've done your mountains. You’ll be doing multiple rounds of editing that look at different elements of your writing, so don’t worry about making each sentence perfect before you move on. That’s the approach you should take when self-editing your book. They don’t start by shading a tiny tree in painstaking detail - they begin by sketching out the mountains and the river. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before.” Don’t try to fix everything at the same time Neil Gaiman puts it this way: “Once it's done, put it away until you can read it with new eyes. It is a truth universally acknowledged that you should set your manuscript aside for a few days before you begin editing.

To get you in that editing frame of mind, here are a few pointers: Give yourself a bit of time

Editing, on the other hand, is an analytical, problem-solving process where you’ll slowly chip away at that lumpy draft until you have something you’re proud of.

Writing a first draft is an act of pure creation. In this post, we’ll show how to edit your own book - with the help of our free, downloadable checklist.
