Editing – Quick Tip – Rearranging

When editing, I find that one of the most useful tools is to cut and paste paragraphs into a new order. Often, a good opening to a story can be made much better by rearranging the initial paragraphs.

And rearranging sentences can improve a paragraph, and rearranging chapters can improve the entire novel.

As you edit your own work, this can be hard to see. So, maybe sit down with your manuscript and focus only and deliberately on moving paragraphs within a chapter, and then focus on sentences within paragraphs and then, finally, consider rearranging the order of your chapters.

You may make few changes, but the exercise is well worth the time and effort.

As alway, whenever you make a change, reread the preceding and following sections to be sure that the change you’ve made has not impacted the surrounding structure.