Types of Editing

In writing, there are three types of editing, with differing levels of severity. Today, we will explore the three forms of editing.

Minor editing is precisely what its name suggests. Minor editing involves some details like spelling and grammar issues, and a few things that could be phrased better.

Major editing is another story entirely. (No pun intended.) In major editing, the writer goes through their story more thoroughly, concentrating on those clunky sentences, obsessing over whether the dialogue is believable and flows well, whether things were explained well in this chapter.

The third stage of editing is the most severe. In this type of editing, the writer picks up their weapon, sharpens it, and heads toward their writing with a frightening gleam in their eyes. This is called machete editing. Does that huge chunk of writing really need to be there? Can this entire chapter be thrown out the window? Maybe this part of the story needs to be rewritten, or something needs to be moved to another part of the manuscript.

As you can see, there are many different stages of editing, some more thorough, more strict, than others. Now is you'll excuse me, I have some editing to do myself. Now let's see, where did I put that machete? Ah, here it is. Heh heh heh...