If you’ve been around the profession for long, you realize that editing can make or break you and your work. Editing is not to be taken lightly, and sometimes, how you approach it matters in doing it well.

We all know that you edit the big picture before you dive into the minutiae. Whether fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scriptwriting, or creative nonfiction, you step back and study how the work comes together and the message it delivers before you decide where the commas go.

In other words, you look at this creation and decide if it’s a story worth telling. Collect beta reader and other editorial feedback, couple it with your own (after you’ve let it ferment for a little while so you read it with fresh eyes), and then decide what needs reworking. That’s what I call the big picture edits…the reworking.

It doesn’t hurt to outline the work at this stage. Read through it and draw an outline. That’s right. Outline it after the fact. Give a sentence to each scene, then sit back and see if this story has the momentum, highs, lows, power, characters, and flow to make it worthy. Don’t be afraid to toss out a character or insert one. Take out a scene that was fun to write but has no drive. Throw away characters. Add new ones. You get the drill. Edit the big items.

Then start over, chapter by chapter, and edit the word choices and syntax and whether eye color for a character is consistent throughout. You know what I’m saying. You’ve finished the basic mold, and this is smoothing the edges. This is where your word prowess matters. If you aren’t proud of each and every sentence, then rework them.

Then worry about the commas (and the other little items). This is the polishing stage. You may find something in the other stages that merit attention as well, but this is your magnifying glass energy.

Then you read it aloud as if presenting it to a room. That’s the final test. You still might be tentative about sending it off, but trust me, after all of this, you ought to have a little bit better grasp of its quality. . . and more confidence in your performance.