God help me, don't know where to start with editing!

[CharCharGabor]

I finished my novel two years ago. Life got in the way and I've just picked it up now, ready to begin editing. It's only my first draft and it needs a complete overhaul. I've read all about structural editing, things to look out for etc etc. The problem is that as soon as I start I go blank and don't know what to do! It seems like a massive task, totally insurmountable and I don't feel like I have the skill set to fix it up. I've already realised one massive change that needs to happen, which will require a full rewrite but other than that, I can't see the woods for the trees! Any tips?

The best advice I had was to list each chapter and sum up in a few sentences what happens in each one. When I did this I realised my book was very slow moving and it helped me pick up the pace. Until I did the chapter summary, I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Also, read Save the Cat Writes a Novel. It's excellent.

Thank you. I do think my pacing is way off and the whole thing needs so much work that it makes me want to hide from it. But at the same time I really want to see this through to the end. I've just ordered Save the Cat so hopefully that will be some help once it's delivered.

I find Emma Darwin’s blog posts on editing very sane and practical.

emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/resources.html

(Scroll down to the revising section)
and

emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2011/06/how-to-eat-an-elephant.html

The website looks fantastic! Thank you so much. I've a feeling I'll be devouring the lot. So far I've decided to begin at the beginning, read through the whole thing and make some notes. I can already feel some things regarding plot becoming clearer so hopefully I'm going in the right direction.

I believe she also teaches extremely well-regarded ‘Self-Editing Your Novel’ courses, but I don’t know anyone who’s done one.

Thank you, I will check them out.

I had Emma as my tutor on an OU creative writing course, and she is fantastic.