Editing

[mstrom]

There is no way I can write using the first editing method Nik listed. It tends to bog me down too much. Though in my case, that is related to the fact that I really don’t have too much of the storyline mapped out ahead of time. I do better if I just allow the story to evolve as I write, so once I get rolling, I can’t allow myself to get to bogged down too much on grammar/flow otherwise I tend to stagnate.

[Nik Houser]

i usually do a cursory edit as I go and then let it fester for a few days. I'll then go back and do more editing and rewriting. I really need to find someone to read my stuff and edit for me b/c no matter how many times I read it, I end up missing or adding words, etc.

I am stuck now trying to finish a short story I wrote in first person POV abotu a past event. Can i revert to the present in the final paragraph in order tie it all up?

A perfectly reasonable thing to do, with the potential to be very satisfying for the reader.

[TerryE]

I am stuck now trying to finish a short story I wrote in first person POV abotu a past event. Can i revert to the present in the final paragraph in order tie it all up?

I don't see why not. I'd put a section break in so the reader knows that the ending is separated, and make it clear that the narrator is changing his time perspective, too. I've done it in a story before, where the narrator was relating a childhood story, then related it to present events.

[RJHubbard53]

i usually do a cursory edit as I go and then let it fester for a few days. I'll then go back and do more editing and rewriting. I really need to find someone to read my stuff and edit for me b/c no matter how many times I read it, I end up missing or adding words, etc.

I am stuck now trying to finish a short story I wrote in first person POV abotu a past event. Can i revert to the present in the final paragraph in order tie it all up?

[C.W. LaSart]

I write-edit-send it to my friend with a degree in editing-reedit. The ones I have piled up right now have already been through all that and have come back from the publisher for edit and re-write. Ack!

[ozmosis7]

I agree, Nik. When I first started writing, I used the first method. I had difficulty seeing the clear path to option two. Once I found it though, I haven't looked back. It's a lot of work, but it makes the end product much more worth while.

[Nik Houser]

As far as I know, there are two schools of writing:

1. You edit as you go, so that when you finally finish page 96, it's the way it's going to be when you send it to your editor. Then onto the rough draft of page 97. Vonnegut wrote that way.
2. The other is the way most people write (myself included). You tear through the rough draft in a blaze of glory, then sit down to trudge through the subsequent 10 drafts.

I think most people don't edit enough. The more you edit (with space between edits), the more object your view can potentially become, and you can see what works and what doesn't. I'm editing this huge story write now on a tight deadline and don't have much time to let the story breathe between drafts. ARGH!

[C.W. LaSart]

I feel your pain-got behind on my editing for the anthology, so now I have 5 stories for the book and 3 for other projects requiring edit or massive rewrites. Only a few more stories to be written, but I am taking a break to catch up on editing. We are pushing the deadline out a month, so that helps.

[ozmosis7]

Started another round of edits today. It sometimes seems like I am editing my stories, more than I am creating them.