The Journey of Writing a Novel:
Creating Magic Beyond the Editing Loop
Have you ever been so lost in a book that you forgot you were reading? That magical moment when characters feel like friends and fictional worlds seem more real than your living room? As a reader, you’ve probably experienced this transportation. As a writer, I’ve spent months trying to create it.
Editing is essential to crafting these transporting experiences, but getting stuck in an endless cycle of revisions is a challenge I know all too well. While each pass through my manuscript brings it closer to the story I want you to experience, revising too many times can introduce new issues—inconsistencies in tone, plot, or character development. It’s easy to feel trapped in a loop, unsure if the novel will ever feel “done.”
The Phoenix on the Sword
by Robert E. Howard
Creating the Reading Experience You Deserve
Good editing produces a tighter story—trimming unnecessary sections and speeding up the introduction to the main conflict, while still retaining a rich atmosphere. When you pick up a well-edited novel, you’re experiencing the result of careful refinement.
Unfortunately, the editing phase can’t be shoved off to someone else. As a writer, it allows me to tackle condensing or restructuring subplots to maintain narrative focus and cohesion. I can add unique twists to familiar tropes and refine the pacing to balance action and exposition. Overall, editing allows refinement, ensuring the novel is clear, cohesive, and engaging for you, my reader. And it must be done to find all those dreaded typos <wink>.
My months-long editing on my upcoming novel Trena, the Memory Reader allowed me to enhance the style and voice of my characters and world-building. There is nothing like finding that perfect sentence to describe the people and places I’ve labored to create:
“In truth, she could never hide, for a clansman of the Ipeyo people, be she woman, man, or child, is one of them and they recognized their own.” ~JL Nich – Trena, the Memory Reader (releasing in 2025)
The Magic of Perfectly Crafted Worlds
Think about those unforgettable moments when you’ve been completely transported by an author’s words. The best writers craft sentences that don’t just tell you about a world—they make you feel like you’re living in it:
“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.” ~ Robert E. Howard – The Phoenix on the Sword
“There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire, and while that is as good a way as any to begin a story, it is also, in a way, the end of the story, too.” ~Neil Gaiman – Stardust
“Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin – A Wizard of Earthsea
I threw in these next two because overwhelmingly they have been read the most or at least heard, and yes, the worlds were so uniquely built the readers could relate and see them in a mind’s eye:
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” ~George R.R. Martin – A Game of Thrones
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings
A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Editing Journey: From Draft to Reading Experience
For fellow writers struggling with the editing process, here’s what I’ve learned: The idea of good editing is to move from outer to inner depths. Look at the big picture outer layer, then move to the middle via the chapters and scene levels. Then get closer by looking at the paragraphs, sentences, and word levels.
Story structure, themes, character arcs, major scenes, and pacing are the big-picture elements I tackle first. Scene purpose, transitions, tension, and conflict come next in the middle layer. Clarity, flow, pacing, and showing (not telling) happen at the paragraph level. Tone, voice, variety and rhythm, clarity, and conciseness are refined at the sentence level. Almost complete, I examine word choice, consistency, and grammar/syntax at the word level.
For you as a reader, this process means that when you open that first page, you’ll be beginning a journey that’s been carefully crafted for your enjoyment. Every scene has earned its place. Every character interaction serves a purpose. Every plot twist has been calibrated to surprise yet satisfy.
Finding Balance Between Perfection and Completion
I set a goal for each editing round—one for the big picture, middle layers, close layers, and so on. Once I’ve addressed all major concerns, I consider the manuscript complete and move forward to have other eyes view it. Beta and Alpha readers are excellent second besties. Then I move toward editors who do this for a living.
For writers, avoiding editing overload requires balance and discipline. It’s important to step back and evaluate when enough revisions have been made.
For readers, this means the stories you enjoy most haven’t just been written—they’ve been refined, polished, and shaped specifically to create that magical reading experience where you forget you’re reading words on a page and instead find yourself transported to another world entirely.
What books have most completely transported you to another world? Was it the characters, the setting, or perhaps those perfect sentences that captured something true about life itself? And for fellow writers, what techniques have helped you know when your editing process is complete? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I want to give a quick shout-out to PLOTTR software. I’ve found it has really improved my writing game and increased my efficiency tremendously. It is my new favorite writing aid. Use any of my affiliate links below and I might get a small commission. Thanks.
Check out my YouTube channel for PLOTTR videos @jlnichauthorsff
Joseph Michael’s Learn Scrivener Fast e-course
Please read and review my serial publishing novel, Sparrow’s Legacy, on Kindle Vella. You can read the first three chapters free on Amazon by searching for “Sparrows Legacy Kindle Vella” or clicking here. I. Please subscribe to my website if you want to be notified when I’ll be publishing or to get free samples of my work.
JL Nich, Science Fiction Fantasy Author
