Developmental Editing with ChatGPT

The enlightened writing buddy that never quits.

Sketch by author and fiddled in Photoshop.

I use ChatGPT to edit my fiction.

There I said it.

It’s out in the world that I, at five in the morning or ten at night, use AI to ease my ever-present creative doubt.

I write stuff. I let it rest. Doubt climbs up my spine and I hate what I wrote.

To solve this, I’ve developed an editing process that:

1. It helps me catch mistakes I’ve missed

2. Gives me a much-needed second opinion on quality

3. Suggests areas for improvement

4. Tells me what I’ve written.

Because, like many Discovery writers the rough draft feels like mana from the muse. Pure distilled genius on the page. The next day it’s meandering meaningless drivel.

So I can’t be trusted. But perhaps my AI writing buddy can?

I want to double my output

Increasing from one difficult and hard-won chapter a week to an easy two chapters a week and hopefully even more in months to come.

A chapter a week would take nearly a year to complete a novel, which feels like an age to me so I’d like to write faster. Also, Wattpad readers expect multiple chapters a week.

All despite myriad real-world commitments, which we all have, I’ll save you my incessant whining about not having enough time.

My revision process goes like this

1. Developmental Edit

2. Line Edit

3. Beta Read

4. Reverse Outline

All done for now with ChatGPT, but when I’m earning more I’ll use human editors too. Particularly, once the early release version of my novel is complete. But, by then, I’ll certainly be able to write a cleaner chapter at a higher level.

So money was saved!

Here’s Step 1 in detail

Let’s start with my prompt.

I want you to be an award winning developmental editor, like Shawn Coyne, and guide me through the improvement of my serial fiction chapter. 

Give me a sense of if the chapter is working and tell me what I've written by:
1. Giving me a short summary of what is happening in the chapter.
2. Then a description of what is happening sub-textually.
3. Finally a single sentence of what this chapter adds to the story's narrative. 

Help me work through any issues
1. That are causing confusion or story problems
2. Give suggestions to fix those issues.
3. Is the opening hook and cliffhanger strong and effective?
4. If it's good enough to move onto Line Edit, tell me.

I use the playground UI because it’s pay-as-you-go. A very heavy use month for me costs around $4 (using ChatGPT 3.5), it’s always up, and much more structured than normal ChatGPT.

You’ll need to sign up and add a credit card.

This would probably work with free ChatGPT, it’s just more difficult to iterate your prompt as you work or choose a short or long response.

I drop the prompt in here and my chapter in there and hit Submit at the bottom.

1. ChatGPT gives me three different summaries

• The literal summary tells me what is happening on the page.

• The subtextual summary of what is being said between the lines (something I’ve not always found intuitive even in real life).

• The single-sentence summary of what it adds to the narrative is very useful to know if you’re adding tension at the right time.

If the above summaries match what I have in my head then I know I’ve written what I think I’ve written. If it doesn’t then I need to clarify my chapter.

I use these all again in Step 4 when I do a Reverse Outline, but more on that later.

2. ChatGPT lets me know what is confusing

I don’t want to confuse my readers, I want them to understand and fall deeply into my story. ChatGPT will list issues that I should take care of before proceeding to a Line Edit. They’ll be things like world-building, motivation, and sensory details.

Usually, I’ll follow up with questions asking them to explain one of their points e.g:

• “Please explain Point 1, tell me why it’s an issue and how I should fix it…” which does what it says on the tin.

• Or and this is gold “Please show before and after examples of Point 1.” which shows quotes of your chapter (Before) and then suggested corrections (After). This is incredibly useful to see what ChatGPT means and to learn quickly.

3. Lastly I ask ChatGPT to tell me if I can move on

This is a new addition as I found without it I could loop endlessly and could start to reach diminishing returns from ChatGPT’s feedback.

It’s very satisfying when it says, “Go ahead and move on to your line edit.” 🏆

Give that a try, and let me know how it goes and if you discover any variations that get you great results!

Continue to Step 2: Line Editing

Polish Your Prose with ChatGPT

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