The Umpteenth Draft

How many does it take?

If you’ve ever written anything, including term papers for school, you know what a first draft is: a complete but unedited work. So what comes next? Well, you say, obviously editing. And you’re right. But what kind of editing?

That’s an important question, because although it may not be obvious to non-writers or new writers, there are four types of editing: developmental editing, substantive editing, copy editing, and proofreading.

Developmental editing is a term often used to mean editorial activities that help bring a work from concept to manuscript. As such, it doesn’t have much to do with what I’m about to discuss. However, some people conflate this with the second type of editing, so it’s worth mentioning.

Substantive editing deals with big-picture issues such as organization and clarity. In works of fiction, it looks at pacing, character development, continuity, and so forth. This kind of editing is less about words than concepts.

Copy editing, also called line editing, is about getting words, sentences, and paragraphs right. Word choices, suitability for the intended audience, grammar, syntax, and punctuation are all checked at this stage.

Proofreading is all about getting rid of typos and other errors or inconsistencies that slipped through. It’s the final stage of the editing process, your last chance to get everything right.

These are all processes applied by editors, but writers should make use of them. While it’s often useful to take them in order, the revision process isn’t always that neat. Sometimes we work on two or even all three levels at the same time. Often, we don’t even wait for the first draft to be completed before we start this work.

Ray Bradbury provided a graphic fictional example of editing-on-the-go in his mystery Death is a Lonely Business. His lead character, a writer, develops a friendship with a local police chief. The chief, it turns out, harbors literary ambitions, so the writer helps get him started. The protagonist’s key advice to his protege is this: “Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”

That’s worth remembering, if only to remind you how good your first draft likely is! It also…

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