The Twelve Stages of Grief: My Editing Process

After years of trial and error, I’ve adopted a pretty structured routine in creating a book. No AI here! I’m old school. As Master Jedi Paul once said on the road not taken to Damascus, “AI is the path to the dark side. You must hate what you write. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to endurance, and endurance creates good characters, and good characters—that has made all the difference.” So yes, I’m in favor of a bit of suffering in the writing process.

Early in my career, I dreaded editing, but that was mostly due to inexperience and a lack of confidence. Now, I love seeing my manuscripts brutalized by my editors. Yes, it's still a bit traumatizing, but in the end, it's always worth it.

I'm just wrapping up a few months of editing, so it seemed a good time to offer my two cents on the topic. 

I’ve also been asked by a few fledgling authors this spring about my editing process, so here’s my “Old School Jedi Temple” version of editing.

Stage One: Idea Journal

All my old novels began as a journal

Since I was a kid, I’ve been jotting ideas in notebooks. Almost everywhere I go, I carry a journal (or three) with me to jot down any ideas I have in this earliest stage of creation. Usually, this focuses on character designs, topical research, and scene ideas. Once the notebook fills up, I know I’ve got the makings of a novel. Sometimes, I’ll toss a journal into the pile with only a few pages of ideas (Like my Fir Bolgg idea). Others turn into an actual novel. At that point in time, I usually transfer the idea to a Google Doc and highlight the pages as I organize the book into some semblance of a plot.

Stage 2: Fast First Draft

After 18 years of publishing, and a lot of experimenting, I’ve decided that I’m a Plotter instead of a Pantser. Having taught the 5-Act structure of Shakespeare and later the Robert McKee structure to modern cinema, I’ve returned to designing a tight outline before I begin. My last three manuscripts (currently unpublished or about to be published in 2026 and 2027) try to arrange scenes to hit on the plot point, pinch, midpoint structure that is expected in a modern page-turner.

So when I sit down to write (for example November 1), I consider this stage a sprint. I’ll have 4-10 bullets of what happens and I write as fast as I can. Unlike some, I don’t write all day long, so I’ll usually dedicate 2 hours to get my 1K-2K words before moving onto other projects. This often happens in the morning when my body gets the best caffeine from my coffee/tea. I can usually crank out a full manuscript in 2-3 months, and you can tell when I’m struggling because my beard gets pretty long (no shaving until it’s done). My target (now) is to get to 80-90K words. 

I began ON THE BORDER on November 1st and finished on January 29th

A shave and a haircut: a reward for finishing the sprint.

Stage 3: Alpha Readers

Let’s talk about Alpha Readers. These are usually fans/friends/family who don’t mind an 

ugly manuscript. I’ve found a half-dozen of these types of readers who will get the novel one chapter at a time. Since I’m not a “writers group” kind of guy, these Alpha Readers are great when I have questions about what to do. Now that I’m writing with more certainty, I’ve trimmed down on my use of in-progress alpha readers because of guilt for making them read slop. Yes, the idea is usually there, but the plot changes too much, which leads to confusion with them. 

Stage 4: Take a Break

When I finally finish with the manuscript, I shave and then don’t come back to it for several months. I just finished the second book in my Mixed-Tape Mystery Series, ON THE BORDER, so I won’t come back to that project until afternoons in November. Some time away lets me forget all about what I wrote, and like reading someone’s novel, it’ll feel fresh when I read it again. You’ll see what’s there rather than what’s in your head. Of course, I’ve got several projects in rotation at a time, so it’s something I’m used to doing.

Stage 5: The Second Draft

So several months later, I’ll return to the project with several new ideas that popped into my head. I’ll also be able to evaluate the project to see what I think of the written plot. At this stage, I try to focus on my starts and finishes to each chapter as I try to tighten the pace of the story. I will literally make a chart where I identify these key aspects:

• Gripping Opening Line

• Unique Physical Traits

• What is new?

• Dynamic of the chapter

• Contract/Promise

• Clock?

• Cliff hanger?

• And then note the word count.

Pulling these concepts out of the paragraphs and pages helps me clearly see what is in each chapter and quickly see the whole book.

Chapter 28 might’ve been written a month after I began, and often, I forget that I’ve included ideas already, so eliminating repetition of exposition is also a focus at this stage. This stage is all about strengthening the structure. Because of this, I’ll often read a book on writing/editing/revising about this time just to hone my skills a bit. It’s easy to not be able to see the forest for the trees, so this is a great reminder of what readers expect from me.

Stage 6: Take another Break

For me, I’ve been rotating two series (The Alchemist Chronicles and Dream Catcher Chronicles), so when I’m writing a new DCC in the morning, I’ll usually be editing another book in the series in the afternoon. This not only keeps me in the mood of that world but it helps me connect loose threads from book to book. Then, I’ll stop and go to another series. Currently, I’ve got my new Mixed-Tape Mysteries scheduled for November to January. My Dreamcatcher Chronicles then gets attention from April to September. Whether or not you have something else to work on matters not: give yourself another break so you can see your own work critically. 

Stage 7: Developmental Editor

I always loved this stage as a creative writing instructor. A student would come to me with the basic ideas and my heart would race. “Ooh, you could do this, and this, and this.” Seeing the possibility of a story was one of my favorite stages because it was still a work in process. 

In the same way, a developmental editor is all about the ideas. What works? What doesn’t work? What makes sense? What doesn’t make sense? Earlier, Alpha Readers were used for moral support. Well, a developmental editor is akin to a dominatrix. You hire her to abuse you and cause you pain and humiliation. Seriously. You need thick skin. On top of that, you’ve spent hundreds of dollars to find the equivalent of the worst reviewer or internet troll you could hope to find. But a developmental editor is not there to hold your hand. Nope. She’s there to make your story and characters stronger. 

But it’s not just cruelty. It will also help you dial in to what worked. After a couple of stages of revision, I tend to like my current manuscript. I look for things to change, but huh, it seems solid. So finding a person with a critical eye will challenge the story.

Frequently, the problems/issues will turn into some of my favorite kernels of ideas. When this stage is over, I know that I’ve pleased someone with higher standards than most of my readers. All that pain and suffering gives me confidence to go out an sell that book.

Stage 8: The House of Cards

But getting that marked up manuscript back? Oh, boy, does that create a crisis of confidence. If done correctly, there will be page after page after page after page of comments, reactions, corrections, deletions, and suggestions. Take my most recent manuscript, The Summerbird. When I opened up that manuscript, I found there were over 1100 comments to address. Each one posed a problem of sorts, so this stage can be tedious and overwhelming. 

Like the reader, I start on page one and work my way through the document, but I’ll also have a document where I jot down ideas to come back to. There’s a bit of madness that happens during all of this because a single suggestion can have ripple effects to spots elsewhere in the story.

So this is where I’ll create a different kind of chart. Since I’ll be jumping around the manuscript when I get a new idea, my chart will list the concrete details like chapter title, POV, Date, and the characters mentioned in the chapter. I also jot down the key concepts and unresolved plot so that later, I can make sure all my T’s and I’s are crossed and dotted. In a series, it’ll also be a quick reference to where and what you’ve done. 

Stage 9: Layout Editing

My two decades of producing yearbooks gave me the basic skills to work on book formatting as well. Even then, it took me a while to master the little intricacies needed to make the book block shine. Since several months go by, I have a notebook where I jot down all the “rules” that I used earlier. THREE WORDS CAPITALIZED to indicate a time break in the chapter. Font changes. Font sizes. All that stuff gets written down with ink so I can even draw what a page should look like. It works for me.

Yet after all that hard work of getting the story just right, putting it onto a 6x9 page changes things. Now you can see what a reader will see. 

And guess what?

There is suspense on how you end a page.

Or where a chapter ends.

So when I transfer from a 8.5x11 page to a book page, I now have to edit for the visual flow as well. If a chapter runs over by 3 lines…ew!!!

Now I’ve got to scroll back up and look for places to cut a few lines. Each page costs money, after all, In an eBook, it matters not. But a printed book? All that white is wasted money. 

So this will offer a new creative challenge to compress a paragraph, cut some fluff, and remove obvious exposition. In The Summerbird, I cut out 10 pages just by eliminating a few words here and there that brought the lines up just a bit.

Stage 10: ARC Copies

Even though the book isn’t finished, this is the time where you can print some (A)dvanced (R)eader (C)opies. I print my books with a local printer, Ingram, and KDP, so it matters not who does the printing. Making a few of these copies lets you find some readers who can now give you a heads up or an early review. It’ll also let you visually see your book with plenty of time to change things. Give yourself about 3 months to order copies, get things read, and then returned to you. Perhaps a reader will see something an editor never considered.

This is also the time where I contact my graphic designer. Since the word count is pretty close to accurate now, the graphic designer can create a cover that fits the spine width. Your ARC copies can also test the cover as well. 

Stage 11: Copy/Proof

Once the story is tight and the layout is finished, you’ll want to hire a different type of editor: the Grammar Nazi. Spelling is easy. Homonyms? You might want a human. This edit is all about the structure and style of sentences. Noticing patterns. The art of how to say something. The perfect word. Luckily, I’ve found a veteran English teacher that knows all the rules (certainly not this guy). Line by line, she’ll nitpick those sentences.

Compared to a developmental editor, this stage is fast since there’s less thinking than a “house of cards” change to the story. My editor uses pen and paper, so my finger finds the error, I scroll to the manuscript page, make the correction, and highlight the inkmark to indicated I’ve made the correction.

Next page.

But be warned! If you suddenly get an idea and write a new sentence, you’re on your own buddy! I’ve embarrassed myself by releasing a new sentence post-editors only to realize I typed 1 of the 10 new owrds wrong. <<see how easy that is.

Stage 12: Audio Recording

So my FINAL stage once I’ve set the mouse aside is to open up the finished document, open up an audio recording program, and record each and every word. This will allow you to know that each sentence, paragraph, and page is just how you want it. An editor that gets 99% of the manuscript perfect still could have a thousand mistakes remaining in that 1%. So engaging your brain and reading each and every word helps to double-check things before publication.

While Audible currently has a monopoly on the market and is likely feeding the AI machine that will be used to eliminate humans from the creative process in the future, I choose to avoid it. I’ll upload my files to Youtube or a podcast platform and give it away for free. Until I see hundreds and thousands of views, I’m not worried about lost revenue yet. 

And final advice: don’t order a thousand copies of your first edition. The nice thing about these print-on-demand companies is that you can make a minor correction and upload a new cover or interior file and have a new book in a matter of days. So when the first copies go out to friends, family, and fans, let them know you’re open to hearing about a mistake.