There are a million and ten different ways to edit your writing, whether you’re writing a short story or a longer piece of fiction and even non-fiction. Typically, when I sit down to edit my writing, I’ll start with the general 10 percent rule on the first pass and then go from there to see what each individual piece needs. Sometimes it might be a complete rewrite. Sometimes (rarely!) it won’t need much more than a few structural tweaks and a spell check. Regardless of which editing process I use, there’s one tool I find I can’t do without when it comes to editing a story.

I call it the Problem Page, or Bug Sheet.

The Problem Page is a separate document that lists all of the problems you find in a story as you’re going through each draft.

The Bug Sheet is an incredibly valuable editing tool. It allows you to read through your story as a whole on each editing pass without getting distracted by completely fixing the problems as you see them.

Say you’re working on editing a short story. On your first read through you’ve noticed character inconsistencies and a huge plot hole. Fixing each of these problems as you first find them risks overlooking the others, but if you’ve noted them on your bug sheet, you’re able to go back and take a separate editing pass for each problem you find.

Here’s how I make up a Problem Page for my editing process….

Open a new document, or take a fresh piece of paper. As you read through your writing, make a note of everything that needs addressing. I usually don’t note down any typos or grammatical errors that are quick and easy to fix on the fly.

Examples of things I might note on a Problem Page:

X Character needs more physical description

Section (a brief description) seems out of place

X item needs to be given more prominence to underline its significance.

Point X needs to be addressed sooner

Does Scenario X create a plot hole?

Inconsistent tense on page 3

I find it helps to use a numbered endnote system too. As I read through, I’ll note a number and make the corresponding numbered note on the problem page.

Some writers choose to mark up the original document either by hand, by footnotes or some other electronic notation system. I find if there are too many points that need addressing, the page can be overrun with notes and scribbles and get very messy and hard to read. A Problem Page just makes the whole editing process cleaner and more organised.

A final tip: it’s also helpful if your test readers make their own problem pages or bug sheets as they read your story.

Do you use bug sheets in your editing process? Tell us about your process!