Develop and polish your editing skills with free worksheets

The planning process does not end when you've finished writing your story. Even the editing process requires some planning, and with the help of worksheets and checklists, you will be able to strengthen your story and polish it into a masterpiece that readers will enjoy.

From First Draft to Finished Novel by Karen S. Wiesner is a writer's guide to cohesive story building. Characterizing the process of writing as something similar to that of building a house, Wiesner provided various checklists and plans to help writers from the start of a project to completion.

In my article Create Compelling Characters With Comprehensive Worksheets, I described how Wiesner's character worksheets can help writers to create a cast that readers will both love and hate.

Both From First Draft to Finished Novel and First Draft in 30 Days (Wiesner’s original writing reference book) include a story plan checklist and character worksheets.

From First Draft to Finished Novel continues and expands upon the idea by providing various revision worksheets (PDF download) that offer invaluable tips on things to look for in your writing will aid you in creating stories that will compel readers.

Editing and Polishing Checklist

Wiesner's Editing and Polishing Checklist provides a general list of things to look for during this process, while also providing questions to ask yourself about your description, dialog, introspection, and miscellaneous areas that you should at for when editing your writing.

For larger works, Wiesner provides a Revision Checklist that highlights structure, pacing and character voice as a few of the areas to pay special attention to when editing.

It also includes a table that you can fill out that will help you to build consistency in your story. The first column allows you to include the timeline or other detail of the scene in question, while the second column is where you provide the page number in your manuscript for later reference.

Punch Checklist

Another simple checklist is the Punch Checklist which allows you to fill out the problems that need to be attended to in the editing process, the ways you will fix these problems and a space to include the chapter or page number each item appears in your manuscript.

Cohesion Checklist

The cohesion checklist is a series of questions to answer regarding whether your characters, setting and plot truly mesh together. It also provides a handy table with specific questions and areas to rework if you find that those topics need to be fixed.

Ex. Are the character’s conflicts, goals, and motivations urgent and causal (can't have one without the other)? If you answer no, possible areas to rework  may be characters, conflicts, goals and motivations, and/or plot.

Download free worksheets

From First Draft to Finished Novel is a wonderful companion book to First Draft in 30 Days, and with the ability to download some of the worksheets for free from either Wiesner's website or the Writer's Digest website, writers of all levels can improve their outlining techniques, and develop their editing skills.

Purchasing the books

Toronto residents can purchase First Draft in 30 Days and From First Draft to Finished Novel at your local Chapters, Indigo, or other bookstore. Find book availability and store location on the Chapter's website.

Online shoppers can find the books at Writer's Digest or Amazon. 

Your opinion matters

Do you use worksheets while you write? Do use them to outline or do you also utilize this tool while editing? Do you have a favorite website that offers a worksheet that you feel other writers can use? Share your thoughts or suggestions in the comments box below. Thank you for reading!

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