How to Edit Your Manuscript: a Case Study with “Viral Agents”

This year, I’ve spent most of my writing time editing the manuscript for Viral Agents. In this post today, I’ll walk you through my editing process, making note of the rationale behind each step of the approach. This is still a work in progress, of course, so I will refrain from spoiling anything in the story. Plus, since the novel isn’t actually published yet, I can’t say that this approach has been successful from the perspective of actually producing a work fit and capable for public consumption. But, the process is underway, and I stand by it for now. Let’s get going.

Step 1: Initial Manuscript Assessment – Large Organizational Edits

I started in February or March of this year by doing one full read-through of Viral Agents without getting too caught up in the nitty-gritty details. I focus on the big picture: the overall flow, pacing, and organization of the story, and paid special attention to points where I felt that there was something missing or off-target. As part of this process, I transferred the entirety of the manuscript from my standard text file into a project in Scrivener. This was my first time using Scrivener, and if you’re interested in how I used this program to streamline the editing process, let me know in the comments.

During the read-through, I asked questions like, “Does the plot make sense? Are the characters well-developed and consistent? Is the narrative structure engaging? Am using too much exposition to explain the science behind the story?” The key here was to focus on structure, organization, and other big-picture ideas. I was not even allowed to correct typos (but, I could make a note!)

Then, the major task: scene summary. For each scene, I created a note that looked like this:

Synopsis (A brief description of the scene, useful enough for me to see it in Scrivener and know exactly what scene it was)
Beginning (The state of the characters, story, etc. at the start of the scene)
Middle (The things that happen)
End (The new state, or: the introduction of the next problem that resulted from the actions in the scene)
Characters included
Mood
Tone

Each scene had one of these “scene” cards. There were over 160 scenes. The goal was simple: make sure each scene had a beginning, middle, and end and actually accomplished something, and be aware of the mood/tone that I was trying to create.

I took copious notes throughout, jotting down new ideas, improvements, additions, and the like. I was sure to mark areas that require significant reorganization, but because I made thorough use of an outline, the overall story and structure were actually fairly tight.

Step 2: Detailed Line Editing and Prose Refinement

That first read-though accomplished, it was time to delve into the manuscript in earnest. First, there were a few new scenes to introduce to the story – and I even added an entirely new subplot. I wrote these, completely out of order, and inserted them into the story. At this same time, I reorganized some scenes, completely excised others that were bogging down the flow (those scene cards really helped here), and then set to the actual hard work: line-editing, re-writing, and reorganization.

I analyzed each sentence and paragraph meticulously. Look for redundancies, awkward phrasing, and inconsistencies. Sometimes I rewrote entire sections because of some really terrible prose. Other times, it was just a couple of quick edits, changes in diction or sentence structure, or streamlining some bad dialogue. I tried really hard to find a sweet spot in the world-building, exposition, and scientific theory-crafting, but I am not sure that I found that. This is what I need the next step for: Beta Readers.

Step 3: Beta Reader Recruitment and Feedback

With the manuscript now polished it was time to bring in some beta readers. These are my experimental subjects, testing how your story affects different readers. I have some longtime friends of various backgrounds (I couldn’t use all scientists), internet strangers who I recruited for their interest in the genre, chess, or reading/editing in general. All told, I have between 8 and 10 people currently reading the first version of the novel and I’ve asked for feedback by the end of 2023, with a clear prompt for everyone.

I plan to take the feedback and suggestions of the beta readers into account and incorporate them into another round of edits. This will help fine-tune many of the questions that I still have about the effectiveness of the story, the characters, the themes and correct them to the best of my ability.

I am currently mired in this step, awaiting feedback from the majority of my readers. To see where we go from there, you’ll have to stay tuned!