You ask how memoir editing works. This is an important and reasonable question.

In this post, I will take you through a typical process. (The process explained here is one an inexperienced writer would take. An experienced writer can expect to shorten the process.)

How Memoir Editing Works

When I begin the memoir editing process with clients, I tell them that proper editing generally requires three “read-throughs.” Unless the manuscript is already at a high level of organization and polish, no editor can give a manuscript all the attention it deserves in one reading.

That’s simply how memoir editing works when done properly

Reading a manuscript without doing any specific editing and forming only a general impression has always seemed a good idea in theory, but I have not found a way to do so that is economical for the client. I have therefore evolved this concept of read-throughs as a memoir editing technique.

In each of the read-throughs, I read the text with two minds: editing the particular sentence I’m reading and thinking about the whole (which is still a blur until I have read the manuscript through at least one time.) This has seemed the most cost-effective process way to work with a memoir.

The First Read-Through

In what I call the first read-through, I am looking for:

• syntax, paragraph organization, cause-effect relationships, and even spelling and grammar. In this first read-through, I am functioning in my best “English teacher” mode. While the client and I may send the same text back and forth several times, I consider any memoir editing that is still focused on these “English teacher” issues to be part of the first read-through.
• fact-checking. Online search engines are a great help, as are road atlases, encyclopedias, and dictionaries (all of which can also be found online). Human memory is simply fallible and sometimes faulty, and it never hurts to verify the name of a lake or a historical date. Unless I am doing only a few checks, I ask the client if I ought to do this work (while the billing clock is ticking) or if I ought simply to make a note of the names and dates the client needs to verify later on his or her own.
• relationships between various parts of the manuscript. This is often a cause-and-effect search. I ask myself such questions as: “Do I know really why the character is acting this way?”
• chronology. Is the story presenting what happened first before what happened second? (This is true only when the author has not intentionally striven to create a memoir that has no chronology. This “no-chronology” is not an approach I would recommend to a first-time writer.) Often a writer will take into account earlier text that changes the timeline.

The Second Read-Through

In the second read-through which occurs after the writer has considered and incorporated all the changes suggested by the first read-through, I am considering the entire manuscript in relation to its shaping and the pacing of the story. At this memoir editing stage, I make suggestions for re-organization (e.g., “The first paragraph on p. 69 ought to be moved to the bottom of page 43 where it happens chronologically”; “The whole last third of the manuscript ought to be condensed.”)

I may also revert to first read-through tasks. Here, too, while the client and I may send the same text back and forth several times, I consider any editing at this broad sweeping structural level to be part of the second read-through.

The Third Read-Through

This is not for everyone. At this point in the memoir editing process, I ascertain that everything is indeed OK. I may revert to some “English teacher” functions—this is generally labeled proofreading. (I also recommend that the author procure the services of a proofreader who has never seen the text and who will read for form only.)

Often the client makes last-minute changes that s/he returns to me for final memoir editing. Usually, we are now very close to the end product—an edited manuscript. Any additional interactions are part of the third read-through.

A memoir editing mistake to avoid

Many clients will be unaware of how memoir editing works. They become penny-wise and pound-foolish at this point. They will want to call it quits during the second reading or before the third is complete. Both your editor is immersed in the story and, being familiar with your text, can make revisions most economically and elegantly at this point. Quitting early is  the old story of “I should have bought it when I saw it.” This is the best time to ascertain that you have the best manuscript you are capable of producing.