All the Joys of Editing

[† Emotional Outlet]

Before I dare entertain the thought of letting anyone read the nonsense that I claim to be even moderately palatable fiction, I always make sure to edit. Given that it takes me upwards of an hour to edit a lengthy post on the forum, editing fiction is a bit more difficult for me, perhaps because I'm always in a sort of writerly mindset. Time and again I've read writing and editing require two very different mindsets, and if you attempt to do both concurrently or try to edit too soon after writing, one or the other will suffer.

Of course, getting others to read your work is vital, as having fresh eyes upon your work is almost always a boon, especially if they're willing to give constructive criticism. In today's market, it seems there is more material to read than there are readers, much less beta readers willing to put forth the effort of giving you useful insight.

Professional editing seems to be languishing, with publishing houses rushing manuscripts that aren't the best they could be into print and rejecting manuscripts regardless of potential. I've heard editors are generally overworked and undertrained--not to mention they don't find much reason to put a lot of effort into editing a manuscript for an author who, and understandably so, will happily leave for the next highest bidder.

Although I hope one day to have a manuscript looked over by a professional editor, I know for certain I'm not letting a single thing slip through my fingers before I take the effort myself to edit my work at least once, get someone to give it a lookover, applying their critiques when applicable as well as adding in any changes of my own that I missed on the first go around, giving it to someone else, and continuing the process until I either run out of people who love me very much and will read my writing or I feel it's the strongest it can be, then take it to an editor, likely a freelance, independent editor.

Doing the first edit--or two or three--on your own is important, I think, because most people aren't mindreaders. There may be inconsistencies, vague bits, missing scenes, and other things related to plot and character development that only you, the writer, will be able to understand and fix. Regardless of your writing style, sometimes you're the only one who understands what you meant to convey in your writing when it's not the most clear.

One of the books I'm reading now, at the recommendation of my NaNo municipal liaison, is called Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print. I've read bits and pieces of it, and from what I've seen so far, it's definitely going to be one I read again and again like I do with No Plot? No Problem!--very inspirational, by the way, and worth picking up. It has little exercises to help you understand the points they're trying to drive, like the distinction between scenes and narrative summary, between showing and telling, and anything in between. It also has a realistic and, dare I say, positive view of self-publishing--that it's a viable outlet for authors, new and old, but you will need to put forth the work of creating a manuscript as perfect as you can, of marketing and reading the fine print before you agree to anything, lest you find yourself buried by the rest or scammed out of your money.

So, all that said, what are your views on editing? On self-editing and getting others to edit your stuff? On professional editing? Do you have a friend who loves you very much and loves anything you write? Do you have a friend you trust will give you the most brutally honest feedback, to figuratively spare the rod and spoil the child? How much time do you give your works to sit before you edit, or do you find the shift between writing and editing to be easy, if not non-existent? Do you let anyone read your first drafts (and I do mean first drafts--ones you haven't edited at all)?

One of my friends told me he was going to hold his breath until I let him read my first draft of my NaNovel, which I resolutely refuse to do because I'm pretty sure it would make people's brains melt. He then responded that because he reads posts on the Internet, his brain is already melted.

[Breathless]

One of my friends told me he was going to hold his breath until I let him read my first draft of my NaNovel, which I resolutely refuse to do because I'm pretty sure it would make people's brains melt.

I guess that makes your friend... Breathless!

My thoughts on editing is that you should always be doing it, not only for literature but for everything else that can be edited. That being said, I seldom edit my own work. I'm a hypocrite!

As I write, I'll read each paragraph and edit it immediately after but once my story is complete, that's pretty much how it stays. If I like it - good, if I don't, I just write up a whole new story and put my other work in a file I renamed 'the drop box' so I can use it for reference / ideas later. I don't let other people edit my work - and I don't think I ever will, but when someone gives me feedback I make a copy of my work and annotate what they've told me. Again, I don't really touch my stories after finishing them but I always use them for reference for future works. So.. yeah, I really should edit my works more...

[† Emotional Outlet]

He seems to be okay since he sometimes responds to me on Pesterchum, haha. Even if he did pass out, I'm sure the permanent caffeine drip he's got hooked up to his eyes will resuscitate him.

I only do that kind of immediate paragraph by paragraph edit for short stories, and even then it's mostly for proofreading. They tend to be one-shots, so I don't worry much about continuity--even my horrible memory can keep up for that kind of thing. I don't know if the stories suffer for it, but it's not a particularly painful process, as compared to my editing of longer works.

Why won't you let anyone edit your work?

I guess it will help to say that I do distinguish between editing and proofreading, and when I think of someone editing any written work, I don't imagine them actually rewriting the work, but rather pointing out bits and pieces, whether it's a single word or entire paragraphs, and noting what works and what doesn't work, of any inconsistencies in plot or character development. Then you do the work of applying their critiques in your own way--all they've done is pointed you in certain directions, not actually drive you there.

And definitely, people should be editing their own works to get an understanding for the process--it can only help in the future to have it developed as a skill. But I know that with most anything people invest a lot of time on, they can be blind to certain errors, even if they're right there in front of them, because they're so used to seeing it. Like an artist who doesn't realise they've drawn the pinkie finger completely off-scale or the writer who doesn't realise they've changed the sex of their character partway through the story or that they've inexplicably skipped partway through one sentence into another.

Your process is interesting, though. Do you treat most of your writing like an exercise and never show it to people, or is it just the nature of the things you write that you don't really look back--it sounds like you do a lot of short stories?

[Breathless]

You're absolutely right - most of my writings are short stories. I don't know why but I just have trouble creating something solid with words over 5,000. The longest piece I've written is something like 10,000 and it's basically all downhill after a certain point. I just feel more confident writing flash fictions and short stories (and even micro-fictions to an extent).

Also, I thought you meant let other people actually physically change your works, haha! I do sometimes show my sister an occasional story or two to hear what she has to say and have her point out where it feels weak to her. But - let's say for example she finds a certain sentence that doesn't fit and says something like 'I would change it to blah blah blah', even if I agree with her and think the words she picked out is perfect I still wouldn't put them in my story. I'd atleast have to change the words again before putting them in, I'm kind of silly like that.

Writing to me is an ongoing on-and-off hobby that I started back in school. I never really thought about it as it used to be that when I got bored, I'd just write a story. I think that's why my editing/reviewing technique is terrible! I've also always had the problem that when writing one story, ideas for another would pop into my head. I would actually have to force myself to finish a story, and once I did I would jump right on the next one without even so much as editing it. These are all habbits I've been trying to conciously break now. I'm trying to plan out my story and lore beforehand and reviewing and editing afterwards. Admittedly I'm still VERY slack, though I am getting better!

I just find it hard to go back and edit... Hard might not be the right word... More like exhausting / tedious.

/edit: 'I've also always the problem' = why I should edit more!

Edited December 12, 2012 by Breathless

[† Emotional Outlet]

That's one of the things I worry about when people talk about getting beta readers and offering to be betas, the whole "this is what I would write". It's also one of the downfalls mentioned in the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, that getting other writers to edit your work can result in them telling you to write the story they want you to tell instead of the story you want to tell. Everyone has their own voice and style when writing, so transplanting the voices of others just seems intrusive.

But yeah, if it's more than a word or two, maybe a turn of phrase that I crafted awkwardly, I wouldn't use exactly what someone else says I should use either. I'll give it a look and tweak it myself to see if it fits. It's a bad habit of mine to do that when editing and proofreading things for others, to say exactly what I think would work better than what they have, so I can only imagine how exasperating it must be for some copy editors who get so much stuff to look at.

I'm not much good at getting things all plotted out before I start, haha. It's so horrible. My NaNovel is a mess of stuff I had revelations about while writing, so things seem to come out of nowhere because I had no idea that was the direction I wanted to go until I got there. I have to go back and plant hints towards these revelations, as well as rewrite some stuff that I reneged on.

When I used to write a lot (I took a hiatus after joining the military because of soul crushing despair), I'd never stick with the same story for long either. I used the same characters over and over, dropping them into different environments and universes, only to abandon the project later. Each one I started was a little more perfect than the last, but none were seen through completion.

One of the things Baty says in No Plot? No Problem? is that it's important to remember you can edit crap, but you can't edit nothing. I always have to tell myself that, because like a lot of other creative types, I sometimes find myself paralysed by my apparent lack of talent.

[† Shazi]

editing is VERY important, you never know what mistakes you have made. I have gone through my stories several times and thought "what the hell was i thinking, that doesn't even make sense" and had to remove it or reword it.

Mae Mae is my friend who loves my work (i think) and i tend to give her stuff to look over before i post it since she spots things I don't usually, and she is very honest with what she tells me =) i know she is because I know Mae-Mae would tell me if my work was boring her haha

the way i write means i get the story out first, a shell of what it should be. as in this happens, this happens and this happens. THEN i start making it make a little more sense, with descriptions and emotions etc. after that it's fine tuning and adding in small details like weather and the such, to give the scene another volume and feeling to it for the reader. most of my stories you see on the forum are in the second stage since, i m way to eager for others to read it by that point haha

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, I feel you on being excited to share your stories. I'm waiting for this Homestuck Secret Santa to wrap up so I can post my one shots, but I likely won't be able to until January. Luckily or not, uncertainty of how the work will be received usually tempers my excitement. Like I'm worried everyone is going to read my gift fics and be like, "What is this horrible shit? This is sooo OoC."

But yeah, my friend that I mentioned was going to hold his breath until I let him read my NaNovel is pretty good about telling me what works and doesn't, at least on a macro scale. I don't know how well he works on a smaller scale, but I'm going to give him my second/third/whatever draft to beta read and edit next year, so I guess I'll figure it out then. I have my entire novel printed out (about 376 pages simplex) in a binder, waiting for me to go at it with some multi-coloured gel pens.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Emotional Outlet

[† Shazi]

YAY multi coloured gel pens!!! i have my scrivener open pretty much all the time now XD

[† Emotional Outlet]

I love working with Scrivener. It helps get me organised in my writing--I don't really know how I worked in Word any more. I love being able to skip ahead and back without everything getting messed up. And it helps me think in scenes and moments rather than just a long rambling stream of text. It's just hard for me to edit long texts in it for some reason--my eyes get tired looking at a screen all the time, and it helps me to have my text presented to me in a different form so I'm less familiar with it.

Also be careful about leaving Scriv open forever--even though it's a very stable program (I've never had any issues with it, never had it crash), some people have left Scriv open for days only to have it act a little weird.

[† Shazi]

really? wow, i close it occasionally if i am doing something that will require a decent amount of my computer's processing power, but for the most part it has been perfectly fine after i have left it for a few days. the most it has done was lag when i started typing again, sort of like a "zzzzz....WAH! oh typing, on it" kind of reaction lol which is understandable for any program that hasn't had any input for some time, the computer dedicates less cpu and ram to it after all

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, well, I hope nothing bad happens! Like I said, I've personally never had any issues with it, but better safe than sorry.

I can't wait until they make it so you can have a background image in full screen mode like in the Mac version. Zen Writer kind of fills the void (another great program, by the way), but it's no Scrivener. And I'd rather not have to move things between programs a lot.