Writing Tip #15: Character Edit

A writing tip a day, every day for 2025

Today is the second detailed breakdown in my Six Stages of Self-Editing. If you missed it yesterday, I talked about The Structural Edit.

Now that you have a book-shaped story and you know your scenes are all 1) necessary 2) in the right order and 3) roughly the right length, it’s time to look at how your characters changed during that structural edit. Here are some questions to ask as you’re re-reading/editing this draft:

1. Do I know who my protagonist is and do they have the prominent emotional arc in this novel? That is, does their emotional arc properly shadow the novel’s emotional throughline? If not, change the way the protagonist reacts to situations, how they choose to become proactive, and alter the tone of their emotions as needed.
2. Do I have the appropriate number of primary characters surrounding my protagonist? If not, cut or combine characters to reduce confusion or add new characters to round out the full cast.
3. Is anyone outshining the protagonist? If so, are you okay with that? If not, give some of those likeable traits to the protagonist instead.
4. Are all characters behaving in a way that is internally consistent? Remember that every character is a protagonist of their own story, it’s just not the story you’re reading right now. Make sure their actions — as unusual and fictional as they might be — are consistent with their motivations.