Trick from the Editor’s Hat: The Top-and-Tail Edit

It doesn't matter how you look at it, editing is a BIG job. Any little tricks to help make things flow are always handy to have.

Here is just one of the many tricks that I employ when editing both my own and clients' writing, giving me a way to examine story flow.

The Top-and-Tail Edit

The idea behind a top-and-tail edit is that you examine the transitions between chapter and sections, looking at the last paragraph(s) of one chapter and reading the first paragraph(s) of the next. Everything in the middle is ignored. This is only looking at the transitions.

This particular idea is highly effective with the development of the cliff-hanger endings.

It started with non-fiction.

I first learnt this idea of top-and-tail editing while I was studying for my PhD. I would spend forever writing chapters of my thesis and send them to my main supervisor to review, only to discover that he only read the start and ending of each chapter — he never bothered to read what was in between. His reasoning was that the beginning of the chapter needed to provide a smooth transition from the previous chapter and provide a nice segue into the current chapter, but the ending needed to summarize the key points from the chapter and lead into the next. And you know what: he was right!

When I made that connection, suddenly my chapter openings and endings significantly improved.

When I moved into fiction, that concept of one chapter feeding into the next, with a smooth transition between the various sections, was something that carried over. It wasn't about getting rid of cliff-hanger endings. Instead, it was about identifying appropriate points to cut a chapter off and structuring the beginning of the next with a hint of what was to come.

Let me give you an example from my own personal writing. The follow snippet is from my military thriller, which at the time of writing this blog post was still being edited.

Before the Top-and-Tail Edit

End of Chapter 26

She walked around the back of the rental car and climbed into the front passenger seat. She then leaned over and started to program the address from the file into the GPS system: 818 Cherry Circle.

Jimmy got into the car and started the engine. "I take it you got some answers."

"Better. I got proof that the Shadow was here."

Beginning of Chapter 27

Alexa and Jimmy pulled up outside the house of Doctor Jeremy Evans. It was a old villa with weathered whitewash slats on the exterior. Even though it was two story, it was still small; the house would be lucky if it had a decent sized bedroom on the upper floor.

The section backed onto the forest, trees stretching up to the sun. But the house was not as isolated as Alexa would have liked; there was a larger house directly across the street.

While the ending of Chapter 26 provides a nice cliff-hanger, with questions about who the Shadow is and why it was important that Alexa and Jimmy find proof that the Shadow was wherever they were, the beginning of Chapter 27 is boring and mechanical. It's filled with descriptive tell, but with nothing to add to the tension that will come in the chapter. What's worse is that it focuses on entirely the wrong thing.

Hint: Jimmy and Alexa are actually assassins who were sent on a mission to recover a rogue agent known as the Shadow. Because of the type of characters they are, their focus would be on their surroundings, not on the little details about the exterior of the house.

After the Top-and-Tail Edit

End of Chapter 26

She walked around the back of the rental car and climbed into the front passenger seat. She then leaned over and started to program the address from the file into the GPS system: 818 Cherry Circle.

Jimmy got into the car and started the engine. "I take it you got some answers."

"Better. I got proof that the Shadow was here."

Beginning of Chapter 27

Jimmy followed the instructions provided by the GPS through the streets of Manzanita. Pulling into Cherry Street, Alexa and Jimmy took full note of the surrounding houses: how many were occupied; the proximity of the neighbors; and who had dogs. Jimmy pulled into the tree-covered street of Cherry Circle and reversed into the drive just outside the house that would have once been the home of Dr. Jeremy Evans. The For-Sale sign out front was a good start, but who knew what surprises could be lurking around.

During the Top-and-Tail edit, the ending of Chapter 26 didn't change. There was no need. It had the cliff-hanger feeling that I desired, encouraging the reader to ask themselves the questions that I wanted them to ask. However, the beginning of Chapter 27 had a complete overhaul, shifting the description of the landscape into the sort of things that would really be happening.

Will this particular iteration stay within the manuscript? I don't know. There are so many things that still need my attention with that particular story, but thanks to a top-and-tail edit, the transitions between chapters isn't one of them.