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.

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. However, 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.

Let's take a look at another example from the same manuscript.

Before the Top-and-Tail Edit

End of Chapter 11

Alexa pushed open the doors and walked down the hall to where Jimmy and the rest of his team paced while they operated on Paul. They looked up at her with expectant eyes.

"He'll live," Alexa said, "for now anyway." It was a collective sigh of relief. "His recovery will be long. The bullet tore him up. But we're fairly sure we got everything. Right now, we need to monitor his condition. Infection will be his greatest enemy. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

Jimmy looked at Rebecca standing next to Alexa and shook his head. The others looked down the ground, averting their eyes from Alexa's gaze.

Alexa sighed. Mission details were never shared with those outside the Eagles, and Rebecca wasn't an Eagle.

"That's okay," Alexa said. "It'll keep. Where did they take Steve? I want to check him over myself."

Beginning of Chapter 12

Steve laid on his stomach, his butt exposed. He groaned and twitched every time Alexa probed a bit deeper, searching for the bullet lodged in his ass.

Jimmy stood in the corner snickering, no doubt earning the evil eyes from Steve, but Alexa had other concerns on her mind.

"Please tell me you got the target." She pulled out a bloodied metal mass from Steve's butt cheek and dropped it into the tray that Rebecca held out for her.

Within this version, the end of Chapter 11 loses all of the tension that was build up with the question: "What happened?" Any secrets were hinted at before the chapter even ended. This was compounded by the action that was discussed in Chapter 12. Both chapters needed to be written as part of the top-and-tail edit.

After the Top-and-Tail Edit

End of Chapter 11

Alexa pushed open the doors and walked down the hall to where Jimmy and the rest of his team paced while they operated on Paul. They looked up at her with expectant eyes.

"He'll live," Alexa said, "for now anyway." It was a collective sigh of relief. "His recovery will be long. The bullet tore him up. But we're fairly sure we got everything. Right now, we need to monitor his condition. Infection will be his greatest enemy. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

Beginning of Chapter 12

Alexa stared at the group of black ops soldiers, waiting for an answer. One by one, they looked to floor, averting their eyes from her gaze.

"So, one of your team is lying in a critical condition, and none of you are going to give me the details about your mission? About how it went wrong?"

Jimmy stepped forward with the calm, determined Eagle mask. But no matter how he tried to hide it, there was anger in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Black Thorn, but those details are classified." He glanced at Rebecca, who was standing next to Alexa.

Her eyes darted to the hidden Quill tattoo on Rebecca's ankle.

"Of course." Mission details are never to be shared with those outside the Eagles. "Please tell me you at least got the target."

"How could you be thinking about their target at a time like this?" Rebecca snapped. "Steve was shot, and Paul—"

"Will pull through." Alexa breathed out and allowed the tension and frustration of the situation to drain away from her body. She looked up at Jimmy again, swallowing the lump forming in the back of her throat. "Did you get the target?"

Jimmy's expression softened, and he nodded. "We wouldn't be here if we hadn't." His hand twitched forward, like he wanted to touch her—share her fears.

It was the sad truth of their life. Eagles were expected to carry out their missions, no matter what. It's either the target or the operative.

"Get off of me!" A medical tray flew out of a triage room down the hall, and the nurse backed into view with her hands up in the air in surrender.

"I'm just—" The nurse ducked as another tray flew past her head.

Rebecca took off down the hall. Alexa chased after her, dragging Jimmy behind her.

Steve stood in the middle of the triage room with his pants around his ankles. He held another medical tray, preparing to throw it.

Notice that the rewrite on Chapter 11 only changed where the chapter ended, keeping the characters in the hall and with the main character staring at the others demanding answers. But because the starting location changed for Chapter 12, that meant the action needed to change too. But this worked in my favor, because the action could take on a more covert feel, adding to the secrets that these characters must keep. And it's shortly after the medical tray getting thrown that the two versions of Chapter 12 possessed similar action and similar details being conveyed to the reader. Who was on the page and when changed, but it worked to keep the tension going.

My point here is that when using a top-and-tail edit, you are only looking at those scene and chapter transition. Do they keep the reader engaged, pulling the reader through from chapter to chapter?