I’ve seen a lot about editing lately - articles, blog posts, courses, etc. - so thought it would be an interesting topic to explore. I even attended an enlightening webinar recently about editing hacks, and you can find hundreds of books out there with all sorts of tips and tricks.
Writing is fun. You get to disappear inside your imagination and create new worlds, plots, and characters. In other words, make up cool stuff. And hopefully, at the end of the process, you have created an entertaining and satisfying escape for others to enjoy.
Editing, on the other hand, is not that much fun. That’s where you get to go back and delve into all the things, large and small, that you got wrong (and hopefully, there will be a lot of things you got right, as well). There are many different approaches to editing, and you must find the one(s) that works best for you.
Some writers edit as they go and only complete one draft of a work. This process generally consists of editing and polishing up what you wrote at the prior writing session each time you sit down to write. You’re lucky if this process works for you since it assumes that you have been able to avoid any major content issues along the way that need to be addressed during a second draft.
Others complete a “first draft” with the intention that it will get a complete overhaul during a later editing process and become a shiny new second draft. There are a few different types of editing writers might employ while working on their second draft.
The first is content or developmental editing, which includes the big picture stuff. Are there any major structural issues with the work? Is there an appropriate character arc? Does each scene build off the previous scenes?
The next step is line editing. This includes all of the little stuff, down to the sentence level, like grammar, punctuation, fact checking, repetition, inconsistencies, etc. Some people suggest reading your work out loud to make sure nothing sounds clunky, that voice and tone are consistent, etc. Others suggest reading from end to beginning, or simply mixing the pages up and reading it completely out of order. If you don’t watch out, this can become a never-ending process. My father (a writer and English professor) once told me that, at some point, you have to stop editing and just be finished, because I could easily edit something forever!
And if that’s not enough, you also have the option to hire a professional editor, or call on friends or writing buddies/groups to read your work and provide additional critical feedback.
It can seem like an overwhelming undertaking, but don’t bury your head in the sand …
Pick up your pen and start editing!
What editing process works best for you? When do you know you’re done?
Angela Crider Neary is an attorney by day and writer by night. She is an avid mystery reader and especially enjoys reading novels set in interesting locales. She was inspired to write her first mystery novella, Li'l Tom and the Pussyfoot Detective Bureau: The Case of the Parrots Desaparecidos, by one of her favorite areas in San Francisco, Telegraph Hill. Her second book, Li'l Tom and the Case of the New Year Dragon is now available. To learn more, visit her on Facebook and Amazon.
I wish I was better at just hammering out a draft; I'm finding that because I'm working on a mystery, that as I learn more things about my story, I'm in this endless recursive loop getting it right. Hopefully this is a first-mystery phenomenon!
ReplyDeleteAlso, very cute cat!
Thank you! Unfortunately, she’s not too helpful with editing. Good luck with your first mystery - my favorite genre!
DeleteWe all have so many methods. I find I have to bang out the plot first, then build scenes and dialogue. I try to edit at each stage, but am terrible for reading what should be there instead of picking up on mistakes. I very much rely on others to help stop them. Lovely cat!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, so lucky if you have others who will read and catch things for you. My mother was so good at that.
DeleteI try to limit self-editing during my first draft or I'll never get finished, LOL. Once I do finish, I let that draft sit while I work on something else so I can look at it with fresh eyes. I usually go through 2-3 rounds of revisions before I'm ready to send it to an editor.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your father's advice and have given much the same myself. It's not always easy for people to "finish" a story and not get caught in a cycle of endless edits. I've learned that when I start moving the same commas around endlessly, it's time to stop and send it to the editor, LOL.
That sounds like a good process. So hard to stop editing and let it go!
DeleteI function in perpetual editing mode. I write then I rewrite what I wrote and so on. I've never been able to silence my inner editor and just get the story down first. Part of the issue is that I write in scenes and then weave the scenes together when I get around to writing the story and filling in the empty places. Needless to say, I'm a slow writer with this process, but I've never been able to start with the first sentence of Ch. 1 and write linearly to the end.
ReplyDeleteInteresting process! I know writers who start at the end and work backwards. Everyone is different!
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