Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 8: Polishing and Editing.

Structural Editing.

If your planning and synopsis "worked", there should not be much need for structural editing. All the same, it is useful to know how to do it.

Structural editing is a tool writers and editors use to correct badly structured manuscripts. It is rare for a publisher's editor to take the time to deal with structural editing. If the manuscript needs much structural work, it will usually be rejected.

Badly structured manuscripts can suffer from all kinds of faults. Most people have heard of "the sagging middle", but not many realise that beginnings, ends, and climaxes can also sag or drag. If the manuscript is "slow" or "dragging", it can bore the reader. If you've ever wondered when a book or a film is going to get somewhere, then you've probably encountered a slow or dragging story.

Slow beginnings can be fixed by the cutting and tightening. Sometimes, the whole first chapter can be removed, and replaced with a paragraph at the beginning of Chapter 2. Otherwise, with a longer manuscript, the first three or four chapters might need to be concertinaed and rewritten.

Rushed beginnings can be rewritten with added exposition. This makes things clear, and also slows the narrative so the reader has time to get used to the style and the characters.

Sagging middles usually need "pointing up" to make them more exciting. Cut out redundant material, and make the middle stronger.

A flat climax usually needs complete rewriting. If the action is dull, you need to rethink story events, and to raise the stakes for your characters. If the telling is flat, you need to give more attention to the dramatic parts. Use strong verbs, cut unnecessary dialogue, and make sure similes, adjectives or metaphors are few and fresh.

Sometimes, structure seems wrong because scenes are out of place. A good way to correct a very slow beginning, if the material can't be cut without damaging the plot, is to begin the story right at the point of the first action, and then turn the original beginning into a flashback.

If you are unsure of where the problem is, make a graph of the story events. If there are too many sitting around the SitNor level, then you should be able to see where to take tucks or inject some more excitement.

Structural editing can be daunting for an inexperienced writer. Sometimes, it looks too difficult, or too extensive. Even authors with several published books to their credit can dread structural editing. They are usually angry with themselves for allowing the situation to develop the first place.

It is easier to the get the structure right, or to fix it if it isn’t right, at the JCB level. There are fewer subplots and usually fewer characters to prune or reposition. A complex fantasy or science-fiction SCB or YA novel can be quite difficult to re-plot, so it really does pay to try to correct structural problems at synopsis level before the manuscript is written.

As an exercise, try graphing “The Orange Outlaw” or “Alien Dawn” or “Trinity Street”, and see if you can find any structural problems.

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