The Editorial Map

In an effort to increase my word count on my work in progress novel, as well as improve the work overall, I took note of Fiction University’s editorial map. I’m almost done going through my novel with this editorial map, and I absolutely love it. It’s really helped me see what’s going on in my novel and where the gaps are.

The editorial map forces writers to go through their novel chapter by chapter and take note of the POV character’s goal, the stakes, the conflict, and more. By slowing down and answering these questions, what works and what’s missing become clear very quickly.

In previous revisions I would always inadvertently speed through my story, focusing mainly on grammar and typos. I wouldn’t mean to, but in the end that’s what I would end up doing. The editorial map has forced me to slow down and ask and answer important questions. Some of my chapters/scenes are in fact missing a goal, or a conflict, for example. It’s easy to remember that a story as a whole should have a narrative arc, a beginning, middle, and end, but I often forget that each chapter/scene should have an arc as well, a beginning, middle, and end,

The editorial map will allow me to take each of my chapters and ensure all the parts are there.

This has been a great exercise for me and I highly recommend it to any writer stuck in the mines of revision.