The Exact System I’m Using to Edit My Novel Fast
Notion screenshots included- adaptable for Google Sheets
This morning, I broke my book. At 9:47 I realized the key magical object, the one I named the book title and series after, is making the entire plot weaker, and I have to kill it and re-think everything.
I’m strangely chill about it. Because I finally have a system that allows me to see these issues fast, so I can fix things now instead of six months from now when I’m crying to sleep because my 4th draft is still trash.
Today, I’m going to show you my simple, repeatable system to get book edits done as efficiently as possible so I can get this book to beta readers by July 15th.
My system
I put the five major problems with my book into Notion (you can do this Google Sheets too) and grouped them by ‘Problem’.
If you open each toggle, you’ll see the problem in more detail. Let’s take a look at my #1 problem: the villain (Draven)’s intentions:
In my Notion table:
“Draven’s intentions” is the umbrella.
I added a “Sub-Problem” column for smaller pieces (like his Internal Goal, aka: what does he want but won’t admit?).
I track progress with a color-coded “Status” column. Right now, I’m about 50% into understanding how Draven’s internal goal (wants to be truly seen and accepted) shapes the rest of the book.
I created a “Scene Anchor” column to list out the exact scenes affected. Example for the ‘Goal-Direwolves’ sub-problem: Draven’s direwolves show up in a few key scenes. When I update those, I’ll put a ✅ emoji beside each one.
Notes column = jotting down fixes and ideas.
And finally: I mark bottlenecks, which are problems that must be solved first or they block everything else. Ex: if I don’t know Draven’s internal goal, I can’t predict his actions, and that stalls everything from the plot to the heroine’s arc. Bottlenecks tell me where to start.
And there you have it! This required some up front work, but with my next book I can easily duplicate this to help me spot major issues quickly.
Speaking of spotting major issues quickly… as I uncovered Draven’s motivations, I realized something brutal:
He doesn’t want the Veilstone
He doesn’t even care enough to destroy it...which was driving the entire freaking plot.
The cool part? I can see that NOW, just weeks after finishing the rough draft.
I’ll dish about it tomorrow- about what it’s like to watch a huge project fall apart, and how to not panic (and let these setbacks lead to breakthroughs)
Until then,
Madi
PS: If you think another author would find this useful, could you share this with them? I’m just starting off on Substack and would love to make writer/author friends!