Dawn's Editing Process

Dawn Chapman - Editing Process

There are a fair few people who have asked me about my editing process because my books do go through a lot, and it's been a while since I posted this. 2018 this is a revised editing post.... 2024 though it may well have errors itself fair warning. I need my editors

Everyone has a different way of doing things, and you will get used to your own. Just practice and test things out. See what you have fun with, what works and what doesn’t.

I am a screenwriter by trade. Yeah, you can look me up. That means I write really lean and mean. Fast action and really hard-hitting pace. I don’t screw around. This does sometimes mean my prose suffers. My style thus comes from a lot of hard work and in using the best people around me to work with me to beat the crap out of me… (err my writing, lol)

This is how I do it.

1 – Writing – 

For the most part I have that ‘movie’ in my head. I see everything in script form, so this means either a 3-act structure or a 5-act. Totally depends on my mood and thus easy to spot in my novels.

I’ve had coaches from all over the world, spoke with and learned a lot from them. I have relished every time someone selling for a living has made the time to reach out and let me know what they loved, and what they think I needed to work on.

Dialogue for me comes naturally. All the fluff description, nope.

I sit down. My choice of venue is www.mywriteclub.com or 4 the words, because of the people I have met there over the last 3 years. It works. It pushes me beyond any other writing app. Usually, I write out 800-1500 words in 25 mins, with a break. Then start again. My aim is 8-10k a day.  (I now hard stop at 10k)

I am a binge writer; I know this now because an 85k book took a week. 120k - two solid weeks of writing in between a week of audio work.

2 – First pass – Typos and Punctuation

This is without a doubt the hardest pass for me, because it’s literally just the typo, punctuation pass. I am no grammar guru, I’ve learned a lot in the last few years. I also know I suck at it. When I sprint, I also tend to miss out ‘speech marks’ so I have to insert a whole lotta them. Sometimes I miss a good few, I hope I catch them all, but I know I don’t too.
Pro Writing Aid runs in the background now, so this pass is a lot easier, and sometimes I’m also posting to RR so I’ll write one chapter and edit it the next day to schedule posting before I write the next.

3 – Dedicated Alfa team

Yes, I do have some really amazing people. They will look over this if I ask them. I don’t usually, but it’s there if I need them. This is only if I’m unsure about where something is going, I’m usually pretty good with direction though.

4 – My Second Pass

This is where I pick apart the arc in each chapter, that means I look at how it begins, where it goes and where it ends. Get in late, get out early. This all means I look at each overall length and decide if it works.

5 – Character depth/word use - my rainbow pass

Two hits here, if it is in third POV and I am using a multicast, (like for The Secret King) this is a check on their screen time. If it’s in First Person POV then I make use of this time by doing a quick over word usage check. I have my crutch words and so do many other people.
I literally have a list of words I know I use too much, and I put them in coloured sections. Then I go through and highlight them all. Hence, I also call this a rainbow pass, because my novel with then look like a rainbow :P It also helps flag up my most hated words - nodded and admitted.

6 - AuthorAI-Marlowe
This is a pretty neat tool, and I will now do a full pass on structure myself before anyone else. This is an extensive reporting tool which can really make you think.

https://authors.ai/

7 – Dev editing

For some of my smaller pieces, I’ve not used paid Dev Editing. This is because my Alfa and Beta readers are fantastic, and I’ve been able to work with them to fix any smaller holes. This works for me because of my scripting. I do love shorter pieces, they were the most fun in film school and beyond. Using all the tricks to get those hooks into readers in the least possible time.

I now also use - AutoCrit https://dashboard.autocrit.com/

The analysis can sometimes be a little off, but it’s pretty good at spotting things.

Using both AuthorsAI (Marlowe) and Autocrit together, I can do a lot before I ever send my work to anyone. This means they get time to look at other issues. Which in turn helps me even more.

Marlowe with pics -


First draft pass - then showing the diff to last pass -

Auto Crit - with pics

First I do a Chapter hit - click analyze all

If I don’t think it's done a good enough first pass on a chapter I hit the spinning wheel. Generate Analysis on each one separately to boost it.




Letting you see two different series - to compare -

Deep POV is new - this has been interesting to see what it think I’m missing or doing in terms of things I shouldn’t.

The timeline is VERY handy. 

I download then into word - cross it over to Scrivener
Here I’ll split the word file up into its sections.

Story Analysis
Character
Story Beat

I will then cross over any chapter items I like the look of enhancing to my actual scriv file and the note section.



For character I can also across series take all the notes on say my MC and track both arcs. Like this -

Here we get into deeper looks at Conflict throughlines




Timeline - Extremely helpful



Looking deep at characters - 

Backwards Blueprint. - this isn’t a full novel so I’m letting a lot of the analysis over my head, it doesn’t count properly, but is still good to see some of it. 

8 – Fixing

This means I have to read the dev edit notes. Step away. It takes me a day or so to let any feedback settle. No matter my time schedule. I won't rush this. I trust my muse, but sometimes it’s the tiniest way of wording something that makes the story or my meaning of it come out better, easier. This process usually takes the longest, and is one I cherish, because, without the notes from those readers, my worlds would never be as polished. I value my ‘editors like gold’ because they are. If you find someone who you love to work with. DON’T ABUSE THEM. If things seem to be harder for them, pay them extra.

9 - Author AI again!

Let the bot do its thing, even if not paid this time, just the free version helps. See what changes have happened, what you still missed. You will miss things, and that’s okay too.

10 – Letting the whole thing sit

This is also a pretty important part of editing for me. To take a break from something. There’s not always time for me to step away from a project for long. A few weeks is all, and my schedule has been intense as all hell. I think I was crazy, but I am almost there! One book left to write… just one! Always one more!

So for me, it might not be ‘walking away’ and coming back to it a few weeks later. The dev edit stage is a good time for me to do something else. To let the muse wander to another world and to see and play over there for a while. This is my way of breaking.

For some I know it’s to play a game they’ve been waiting on for a week, to take a reading holiday, or binge-watch the shows they’ve missed out on.

For me, it’s also cleaning house… making sure I spend extra time with family or Bobby.

11 – My final Read through and Pass

Scrivener is brilliant. Working with Editors is also brilliant, but they work in word. So, the passing to and from Scrivener gives me a headache. For this stage, it’s mostly in Word now… so I make sure it’s in my format template for the story world, and I sit and read through – different font, backwards…. Scrivener is great because the Mac version will read to you aloud is wonderful. There are lots of programs out there that you can convert to, that will also do this. I highly recommend it. (I’ve recently been using ReVoicer which is better than robo voice)

12 – Line Edits - Copy Edits

I’ve had a lot of issues this last year with my life, that includes editing that I can afford and up to a standard that catches enough for it not to worry me. I worry because editing is something everyone comments on, and I hate that.

I know that things are missed, I’ve never not gotten an audiobook for my job that hasn’t got errors in and I’ve done maybe 700 books this last 8 years, but it stings.

So, I’ve been testing out and using different editors and trying to find one that does enough for me, and is within a price range that fits. One of my novels this last year cost me over 6000 in edits, and the process, even though I couldn’t do some of this, and we still missed a lot that was caught in audio. I can’t do that for now, I loved the editor, but for the price I just can’t.

So yeah, I’m testing a lot of different people at the moment, all very good, all decent price too, so I know I’m not skimping at all, but middle range.

Doing the best we can as always to put out quality products.

13 – Working through copy edits and final notes

Sometimes there’s still the odd thing that needs a little building on. Although Copy edits are supposed to be just that. It’s great to get a note to say if something isn’t quite working so I can still fix it. This comes with trust, and in building working relationships with the editors you use. I choose to use different people along the way because I get the most value and differences of opinion throughout.

I take my time here also, go through each page. Mostly I agree with things, sometimes I don’t. And a change here and there’s not accepted.

14 – Final Proofing/Formatting

I can ask a couple of amazing people to help here, and I treasure them just as much as anyone else. Having these people around you, means the most. They can focus on anything, missing/wrong on the ‘reader’ level.

Do not skip this part either!

For paid proofers I’ve used some from Fiver, and some I picked up along my years writing who were pretty darned good for the prices. All of them found and spotted just a few things that I’d missed.

Changing font helps, going from word to google docs, or publishing and reading on your phone. I do all of it, if I can. Even Scrivener and word will read out to you now, so you can do an audio pass yourself, it doesn’t need to be with a true narrator. Even reading it aloud. Really, really helps.

15 – PUBLISH!

Hitting that button is the scariest thing you might ever do! We all worry about it… we wait with anticipation and refresh amazon… all day long…

I also do a read through with my KU account here. Because I always spot a few things here as well.

However, that is never the end! Always just a little tweak or ten!

There will be a couple of pesky typos or missing words that get through and your readers love to point them out.

16  – Audiobook Pass

I hadn’t considered this one before I started Audiobook’s. But it is…. And this one embarrasses me because sometimes no matter the huge effort I put in above, the narrator will always spot the odd inconsistency that we missed. Sigh.

I adore them all, they have picked out a few typos and wrong word choices. But, yes, this is a really final pass over… although usually, it’s also way after the publishing phase.

So, there you have it. My process.

From that book in a week. This takes approx. 3-4 mths for me. Sometimes depending on the length of the books, I have to split them up too. Can’t wait 12 weeks to get something back so my editors have worked in chunks on my 265k books.

So…. How do you do it?