There’s an important difference between editing and revising, although writers tend to use “editing” and “revising” as interchangeable terms to mean anything other than drafting. You’ll need to do both, so it’s helpful to understand the difference. In this blog post, we’ll focus on revising, which includes more large-scale changes than editing.

Whether you’re still working on your first manuscript or you have an idea for your tenth, Good Story Company’s expert editors are here to help. We offer a variety of options for writers at all stages of the process.

A revision should be a reimagining, a step back to look at the story from a macro level. This requires, above all other things, a little bit of time. You won’t be able to see how well your story is working if the scenes are still fresh from your fingers. Putting a manuscript aside for a while—I’d recommend at least a month—allows a little more distance.

Questions for Revision

One important difference between editing and revising is that while editing polishes what’s there, revising questions everything on the page. These questions should include the following:

• Does the plot have a beginning, a middle, and an end?

• Does it hit other plot beats?

• Do the characters have emotional arcs?

• Are the characters interesting?

• Is the protagonist the most interesting character?

• Does the story make sense?

• Is there a climax?

• Is the ending satisfying?

• Does the ending match the promises made in the first chapters?

• Are there places where the pacing drags?

• Are other plot points skimmed over too quickly?

• Is the balance between action and reaction working?

• Is there enough plot to carry the story?

• Are there side plots that need to be trimmed or expanded?

• Are there supporting characters who fill the same function and could be combined?

• Is the story believable?

• Is the world-building rich?

• How is the balance between showing and telling?

• Do the characters face enough opposition?

• Is there enough interiority?

• Do we care enough about the characters?

This list of questions—which could be expanded to several pages—guides the needs of a revision. Maybe, with the distance of a month or two, you realize that your protagonist is actually kind of a bump on a log who is carried along by the story. You need interesting characters! In that case, revision would involve making the protagonist more active and giving that character more opportunities to put events into motion. Maybe you see that your ending falls apart. This usually means revisiting the beginning so that the right seeds are planted, nurtured along, and developed over the course of the manuscript.

Manuscripts often require several levels of revision before they are ready to move into the editing phase. When agents request a “revise and resubmit,” they don’t want you to simply fix the three paragraphs they’ve pointed out. They want a reimagining of the manuscript, a thorough and in-depth tackling of the issues they’ve pointed out—and more. Because I guarantee that when you sink your teeth into a revision, you will always find more ways to improve it.

Questions for editing

For our purposes, editing is the treatment on the micro level once those big-picture problems have been addressed. Here are some editing questions to apply to your manuscript:

• Does each character have a distinct voice?

• Are the paragraphs and sentences varied in length and in style?

• Does the style match the moment in the story?

• Are there too many dialogue tags?

• Are historical or technical details accurate?

• What are other small changes that might enhance the manuscript?

For example, I wrote a story about a poisoner who smells things that other characters might not. I did a read-through of the manuscript just to find places to insert her observations for odors or to make comparisons using her sense of smell. This wasn’t a reimagining of the manuscript—she was always a poisoner, and I tried to put her heightened sense of smell into even the first draft. But by editing the manuscript with just this one trait in mind, the story improved.

The last level of revision that a manuscript undergoes is editing at a word level for grammar mistakes (spoiler alert—it’s usually commas!), word choice, and formatting.

Should I worry about the difference between editing and revising?

The difference between editing and revising is sometimes a blurry line, and that’s okay. Writing can be a messy process, and as long as you are examining your manuscript at both a macro and a micro level, it doesn’t matter too much whether you call it revising or editing.

Hiring an editor can help at any level of the writing process. It makes sense to hire an editor for content development—that revision level, where the story as a whole is tackled—before you spend money on line editing or copyediting. Beta readers and critique partners are also a wonderful resource, especially at the revision phase, when you need feedback on whether the mystery’s solution is too obvious or too obscure, whether your characters are compelling, and whether the plot makes sense. Once you have revised and edited your manuscript yourself and need fresh eyes on your manuscript, the Good Story Company is here to help.

As an agented writer and highly experienced editor, Amy Wilson can quickly identify strengths and opportunities for growth in your plot and prose, help you build a compelling submission package, and provide the encouragement you need to reach your writing goals. Take your writing to the next level with Amy’s professional eye.