Five Must Have Editing Resources for Writers

Congratulations! You finished your book or fiction piece. You’ve made sure to develop your characters and nailed your GMC. Now comes editing.

There are different levels of editing. During the first round of edits, it’s best to focus on the major things first and then gradually continue editing until you reach the proofreading stage.

A book goes through editing many times before it is ready to be published or submitted.

Luckily, there are resources out there to help authors along the writing journey. You could hire a full service editor from the get go, or tackle some or all of the editing tasks on your own.

Join a Critique Group

One of the best ways to develop writing skills is to join a critique group. Consistently working with other writers helps to develop their craft. I recommend groups that meet weekly over monthly groups, simply because you get to know each other better and are able to spur each other on. These should not be random writers, but people with goals similar to yours. Ideally, they should be at or above your skill level.

I prefer to find critique partners through the better known, large writing groups or by referral from other authors. Many writing organizations offer small critique groups.

Not every group will be a perfect fit. If that happens, don’t give up. It can take time to find the right match. If all else fails, you can form your own.

Enlist Beta Readers

Another option is to find a few beta readers, which I have written about before. That article is here.

Editing Books

One of my regular critique partners recommended a book titled Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing by Tiffany Yates Martin. I’ve studied many books on craft and a few on editing, but this book changed the way I approached writing. It is chock-full of solid advice, all neatly organized and presented in an easy to understand manner. I didn’t just read this book, I took notes in a separate notebook, color coding as I went along. On my first read, I discovered plenty of helpful tips for my specific projects. Good stuff!

Editing Software

The second resource I always recommend is ProWritingAid. This program can be used online or installed on your computer. Anyone can try it out for free. It analyzes writing and makes suggestions for corrections.

ProWritingAid is for the final stages of editing. There’s no need to wait until you’re completely finished with your work, though. This program will help you learn how to craft effective sentences and possibly reduce the amount of editing needed in the first place. It’s a powerful tool that goes way beyond grammar or spellcheck. There are similar programs available, but PWA is the one I am most familiar with.

AuthorTube has numerous videos and writers offering advice.

The young adult author and popular YouTuber Alexa Donne has two excellent videos for novelists about how to correct overwriting and underwriting. Many unpolished novels have a little of both, even when the total word count of the manuscript doesn’t seem problematic at first glance. The videos are well worth the time it takes to watch them.

Using these suggestions may smooth out a manuscript, but it’s still recommended to hire an editor if you plan to self-publish. But that’s a post for another day.

Do you have any resources you’d like to share? Know of a great editing book, software, or program? Drop a comment below.

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.