How to Self-Edit Your Novel: A Chat with Tiffany Yates Martin

Do you know how to self-edit your novel? If your answer is “no,” you’re not alone. While creative writers know a thing or two about building worlds and imagination, self-editing our work—and editing in general—is an art form we don’t spend enough time understanding.

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In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” content editor Michael Woodson sits down with professional editor, author, and instructor Tiffany Yates Martin to discuss self-editing, how to self-editing your novel, when to seek outside advice, and more.

From Tiffany Yates Martin:

“I love writing, but I would rather edit than almost anything on Earth. I always joke that as a writer, I can put maybe one full-length story into the world a year, but as an editor I can help midwife hundreds of them.”

“Writing your first draft is the first base camp on Everest, but maybe a better way to think of it is that writing your first draft, which is where all of our thoughts and our teachings about writing kind of focus, it’s really just laying down the melody line, and then you’re orchestrating it in editing.”

“Editing is assessing, revising is addressing. Editing is where you look at what you have on the page and see how closely it matches what your vision is, your intentions, how affectively it’s conveying the story … and once you know what is and is not on the page, what is and is not working as well as it could, then you go back and revise. But if you just jump in, it’s like starting to build a house without a blueprint.”

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