Editing Tip: Revise by deconstructing

While analyzing your own draft, try deconstructing the piece into the various elements of fiction (plot, setting, character, point of view, theme, style, etc.). This can be beneficial in determining what is missing. Revising the manuscript by focusing on one element at a time probably isn’t very workable, however. These elements work together to make an integrated whole, and so the story needs to be approached holistically.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.