A few weeks ago (or maybe longer, I can’t remember exactly), I posted about my lack of writing process. So I’m doing a follow up blog to that about my editing process, and as you can tell from the title, I have one!

I started my editing process a few years ago after taking a Dramatic Writing course at my college. I had asked him for advice on how to make my plays better and he told me one method I could use is ‘The Jigsaw Puzzle’ method (that’s what he called it, not sure what the official/technical name is). Basically it’s taking your piece, cutting it into sections, whether it’s by paragraph or scene or stanza (depending on what you’re writing), and then placing things in a different order to see if things seem to flow better. You can add lines, scenes, stanzas, etc if you need them, but it’s a way to look at your piece in a new way and see what you might need to add or what you might need to take away to strengthen the piece.

I actually find this editing method to be really useful and helpful to me. I’ll take my piece, hang it up on my wall, and then starting cutting things into their sections, moving them around, adding lines or cutting lines, and for some reason I can’t explain, this method just really works for me! I’m not sure I called it a Jigsaw puzzle method because it doesn’t remind me of a puzzle, but it’s still useful!

So my question for all of you is- What is your editing process? Have you stuck to one process over the years or do you switch your process from time to time? Let me know your answers! I am really curious to see how others edit their pieces.