A writing path

Prose editing

Choose an editing intention before changing prose. Freeze story facts, then work on attention, dialogue function, viewpoint, time, or length. Keep the original beside every revision so accepting a style change does not silently accept a different event.

Start with what you have

You like the events but want a different rhythm or expression.

Number the facts, including negatives and exclusive claims, then compare an edited version against each fact.

An important feeling is summarized, or a draft overexplains every moment.

Choose one consequential moment to stage and keep summaries that provide useful time, context, or rhythm.

Existing dialogue repeats background or loses speaker identity after cuts.

Mark each turn's intention, cut duplicated work, and retain the cues and longer lines needed for distinct voices.

The narrator knows another person's unspoken plan, or time relations blur after conversion.

For viewpoint, identify each claim's knowledge route. For tense, draw event order and choose a narration anchor before changing verbs.

You need a shorter excerpt while keeping its turn.

Map required information functions, combine repetition, and audit cause and cost after counting the result.

Work in this order

Protect the source
Copy the original and write a compact fact ledger: people, injuries, objects, location, order, negative facts, and knowledge limits.
Make one intentional pass
Choose the current problem. Enlarge a decision, edit a dialogue function, repair a viewpoint breach, or clarify a time layer; avoid treating all prose as one generic rewrite task.
Audit meaning
Cite the revision's evidence for each locked fact. Check inferred knowledge and earlier/simultaneous/later events separately from vocabulary overlap.
Cut by function
If length still matters, preserve request, obstacle, evidence, choice, and cost. Count with one convention and explain at least one deliberate keep.

A worked path

Original authored workflow: Firefighter Iris has an injured left arm, searches with her right hand, and has not opened the locked door. A rhythm edit can split her search into shorter units, but it cannot move the only key from the coat's inside pocket or let her enter. First freeze those facts. Next choose close attention to the searching hand; show that action rather than adding a list of fear symptoms. If the narration says a person behind the door plans to flee, remove that author-only claim unless Iris has evidence. Finally compress duplicated smoke description while retaining the unopened-door fact. The result is accepted only after the fact audit; shared wording alone does not prove fidelity.

Practice one step

Next step

Keep the accepted revision and its change notes together. If the edit changes a real story fact, make that a separate author decision and update later continuity evidence. For contradictions between scenes, move to the structure route with labeled excerpts rather than asking a sentence-level rewrite to solve the whole manuscript.

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