Delete these 4 things NOW when editing a novel

At the home stretch of getting my novel finished and readable, I’ve noticed certain trends in the things that I’ve had to eliminate during the editing process. We all have our own style of writing – unless we’re really hell-bent on trying to sound like someone else – so naturally we also have our own quirks that we often have to delete or change when editing a novel.

There aren’t exact rules for what should or shouldn’t be in your book and most “writing rules” aren’t really rules made by anyone rather than examples of what works best in writing. There’s a time and place for everything, and if you came here to read about adverbs, keep reading!

So what are these pesky things that I keep having to eliminate when I edit my novel? And should you edit them out too?

Related reading: How to edit your novel – How many times should you edit?

Delete any remnants from the first draft

The first draft truly is you telling the story to yourself, so it’s more than fine to over-explain things. Your characters can also grow during the writing process, so sometimes something you’ve written before simply doesn’t apply anymore. This is why editing and rewriting are such important parts of the writing process and why you shouldn’t get too attached to anything you write in the beginning. During the editing process, look for and eliminate anything you can’t justify keeping there anymore.

My protagonist Maura hasn’t been dealt the best cards in the world but she’s smart and well-read despite her difficult childhood and humble beginnings. Although she’s now a very grumpy and argumentative adult, she’s never been one to cause trouble on purpose. So why, I wonder, did I write this:

[…} like a teacher scolding her for misbehaving between classes. Always between the classes, never during.

What’s the significance of getting in trouble between classes and not during? Desire to learn, I guess, but why would she go and be naughty anyway? To be quite honest, I can’t even remember what I had in my mind when I first wrote that in the early drafts, and still it somehow made its way to final rounds of edits.

This is exactly why I’m writing this post: to show you the things you might not have noticed in your own writing. I do want you to write your best story because I want there to be more great books in the world. So look at every sentence with a critical eye: does it REALLY need to be there?

Remove irrelevant character descriptions

These might also be first draft remnants, or maybe they’re just things you wrote because they sounded good. I hate what a cliche “kill your darlings” is because to be honest some people say it just to be edgy, but sometimes you really do have to erase the things that you wrote just because you liked them.

Something I’ve noticed myself and what I read on Wired For Story, readers assume that everything they read is relevant. People who haven’t ever taken the time to analyse storytelling probably wouldn’t be able to point out what they didn’t like, but irrelevant details can leave a feeling of unfulfilment and confusion in the reader. This is one of the most important things to remember when editing a novel.

If something you wrote sounds like it could be relevant later, but it isn’t, you need to remove it. If a character description doesn’t shed a light on how the character acts later or how other characters treat them, your story is most likely better off without it.

Don’t tell what you just showed

Again, this is fine in the first draft, but most of it should be gone by the time someone else is reading the book. This is something I see many beginning writers struggle with, so you should know it’s common, but it’s not difficult to learn to avoid doing this in the future. During the editing process, look for and eliminate any instances where you’re both showing AND telling the same thing.

To be clear, sometimes it is appropriate to emphasise something by repeating it. But if you’re frequently telling the reader what just happened or explaining why your characters are doing something when they already know, you’re diluting your own writing and underestimating your reader (and your own writing skills).

Here’s another example from my novel:

Now five of the poles had been struck into the ground and there seemed to be at least a million more. Maura would never get out of this. But she would not be the reason they had to slow down either, and in fact, the others had better catch up to her. Josie was perhaps being too gentle with the hammer and she often stopped to switch places with Meredith. Maura straightened herself up again, she would not be weighed down in front of them.

This is very subtle but because I didn’t start writing this post sooner, I have already dealt with the more obvious examples. My bad. What do you think I deleted from this paragraph?

she would not be weighed down in front of them

Again, sometimes it’s okay to repeat something for emphasis, but if you want your writing to be tight, you need to eliminate unnecessary repetitions. When I re-read this passage for what seemed like the millionth time, I realised that straightening herself up already implies that she was not going to let the others weigh her down.

If you use body language in your writing, and you should, there isn’t usually a reason to explain what it means. Either you need to trust your readers more OR use better body language in your writing. If you’re unsure, ask someone else what they think is happening and what your character is feeling in the scene, and make changes if needed.

I actually brush this topic in an Editing Quick Tips episode in the What If You Wrote podcast, so you might want to give it a listen.

Try not to use italics and exclamation points for emphasis

This is sometimes a tough one for me to accept, but excessive usage of italics and exclamation points can make your writing look, well, amateurish. I know! They’re totally fine when writing blog posts and other informal stuff like that, but in fiction you should make your point in other ways. They can also be distracting for readers and they can make them realise they’re reading a story instead of living it, which is something you want to avoid. Avoid!

If you have one or two occurrences of italics or exclamation points, that likely won’t ruin your writing, though I would advise you keep them in dialogue. You might be tempted to sprinkle them in the narration of a first-person POV, but you should find other ways of expressing their dismay, disgust, surprise and horror.

Definitely don’t use italics to show that someone is thinking something – your readers will understand what you mean without them – but you CAN use them to quote something that a character is reading. They’re also often used for flashbacks, but reading several paragraphs of italics can be tiring for the reader.

Should you delete all manner adverbs when editing a novel?

First, let’s get clear on something: You can’t write without adverbs. If you didn’t know that, you probably also didn’t know what adverbs actually are. Adverbs modify other words, clauses or sentences by providing information such as how, in what way, when, where, to what extent. “Today” is an adverb, and so is “here” and “even”, like in “she isn’t even a real unicorn”.

The thing you want to avoid is manner adverbs, which are those things that end in -ly (with a few exceptions like “fast”). Yes, they do have their place, which we’ll talk about in a minute, but more often than not, they’re not very descriptive writing. I can’t remember who it was, but someone has said that “‘Very’ is the least very word in the English language” and it applies to these -ly verbs as well. There’s nothing sudden about “suddenly”.

Mind you, the way to get around this isn’t to find synonyms for these words. If you’re googling for “synonyms for said angrily”, you’re already on the wrong track, my friend. SHOW US the angry manner of speaking if you want to make an effect with your writing.

The right time to use manner adverbs in your writing

You know what? Sometimes opening a door is just opening a door, and sometimes you have to say “she quickly opened the door” instead of “she opened the door faster than her pet hawk could locate a mouse in the backyard”. (Although that sounds REALLY COOL.)

You also need to remember a point I made earlier about readers assuming everything is relevant, and if you spend several words on describing an action that readers should have no issue imagining themselves, they assume it has some kind of a significance. In the least it should be setting the mood and revealing something about the character that we didn’t know earlier.

I already hinted at this earlier, but you want to be extra careful with adverbs after dialogue, as in, decribing the way someone says something. If you find yourself writing things like “he said sadly” or “she said angrily”, ask yourself this question: How do you know? Surely you know when someone sounds sad or angry, so just infuse that knowledge into your writing.

Here’s also where “don’t tell what you just showed” comes into play sometimes. It can be tempting to write “she smiled happily”, but doesn’t smiling already imply kind of happiness? “She smiled sadly” actually DOES say something, though, and can be okay.

What do YOU frequently have to delete when editing your book?

I want to hear from YOU now because I’d like to write another version of this post where my fellow writers share their experience with editing their novels. What is your “pet mistake” that you keep making in your writing? Do you use the word “actually” on every single page? Share in the comments and help other writers!

Want to become a better writer before you write your next story?

Your early drafts NEVER have to be perfect (or even good), but you make the editing process much easier for yourself when you eliminate at least some of the easy mistakes you can make. It’s also a lot easier to spot the things that you need to fix when you’re aware of them.

And how can you do that? By reading even more writing tips? That MIGHT help, but why not apply those tips straight away by doing writing exercises instead? Just get this free collection of writing exercises and start improving your writing skills today – you’ll thank yourself later.

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Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.