The second time around . . . ?

[Zombierella LoveLetter]

Hiya =^-^=
Okay, I wrote a story draft of about 100,000 words and an odd 500 or so to add to that, but I haven’t edited, cut, or rewrote any part of it.
Now I’m about to do so, but it’s soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo big!  
I don’t know where to begin. I know I have faults throughout the story—things I need to better explain, things to tie in, ect—but I can’t seem to simply start from chapter one and go straight through rewriting the whole doc.
I feel like I miss too many things when I edit. There are just so many little details to remember  
Maybe I’m over thinking it a bit, but after you write a story over 100,000 words or so, how do you know where to begin rewriting, ect? What steps do you take next, and in what order? (You, personally)
If someone’s asked this question before, I’m sorry for re-asking, but I couldn’t find anything on it  
It’s such an exhausting process and I just don’t know where to start. Any help?
Thanks <3

[510bhan]

Have you got a chapter by chapter synopsis? That is helpful for making sure you don't miss and key chronology issues or people [bit parts] who disappear/remain hovering and don't make a satisfactory exit. It also shows you your sequence of events and if you need to pick up the pace, slow it down etc.

Once you know what's happening where, then you can address the actual writing within the chapters, make amendments if need be and see if it is as tight and smooth as possible -- cull redundancies, lose repetitions and suchlike.

[Dawn]

Hi, welcome Zombierella.

Sio, has given you some excellent advice. Essentially, you need to map out your story and break it down into workable chunks. Have a look at some software that will help with redundant words. A good one is the passivator and another which is failing me at the moment. I will try to remember and post back though.  I know some recommend auto crit but there is another one which I quite like.

[510bhan]

Pro Writing Aid is handy too -- thought take it with a huge container of salt -- especially if the piece is dialogue heavy [and allowed to break the rules]
http://www.prowritingaid.com/Index.aspx

[Dawn]

That's the one.

[Zombierella LoveLetter]

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! 
The link helped a lot :’) thank you both! <3

[510bhan]

You're welcome.

[Lin]

If this is your first novel I suggest you cut it down to just under 100K words.  If you intend to e-publish I have discovered the publishers want text under the 100K word mark due to slow internet speed of some users.  Also if you go for mainstream publishing they prefer 100K words or less.  There is a very good reason for this - a smaller book sells on the bookshelves and is less expensive to produce for the publisher. (Unless your name is Penny Vincenzi)

May I suggest you send me the first three pages of your book and I will look at the editing and see if there are lots of words you could cut down on, to give you an idea where to start. YES its a big job! I know because I am doing this now.  Using an editing programme is  a useful tool.  I use AutoCrit which is free for your purpose unless like me you bought the professional version.  I will send you a report to get you started.

I first look at all the unnecessary words,  HAD/IT/THEY/WERE/WAS then I look at repeated words and phrases - if you go EDIT on MS Word and press FIND - key in FIND ALL of a particular word and you will highlight all those words - see if they are close together in the same sentence or even within a couple of sentences or a short paragraph, then find an alternative word.  But the editing programme is very useful. Don't forget the use the grammer checker too in MS Word, but remember the final decision is yours to make those changes

Lin x