My Editing Process: Red Pens and Read-Alouds

Writing a book is one thing. Editing it is another.

My editing process starts with a full edit, then a line edit, going through the manuscript carefully to catch awkward sentences, repetitive phrasing or words, and those little mistakes I seem to miss, over and over again.

Then comes the red pen.

My wife used to be an editor, which means she knows what to look for. It also means my printed manuscript comes back covered in red. A lot of red. I take her comments on board, make the necessary changes, and then go through the whole thing again myself. Line by line.

This time, I use the Kindle version. Reading the manuscript on a different device helps me spot things I might have missed on the screen or on paper. This piece of advice came from Moran Daniella Jassiah, a dark romance and romantasy author and beta reader and editor for writers (@morandaniellajassiah). Her TikTok is @bookbopdaily. I have found it to be an invaluable piece of advice.

Finally, I let my computer read the book aloud to me. Hearing the words rather than simply reading them is surprisingly effective. Awkward dialogue, repetitive phrasing, and sentences that don’t quite flow suddenly become much more obvious.

It’s a lengthy process, but every stage catches something different. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can never edit a manuscript too many times.

But at some point, you have to stop. Otherwise, you’ll be editing for years.