Editing

[ozmosis7]

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

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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!

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Craig Wallwork]

I sit in a strange place when it comes to editing. The blaze of glory approach and the re-writes as you go, well, I'm somewhere in-between. I try to write as much as I can, but I tend to go back at the end and edit a few lines, flower it up, pull something great out of a bland sentence. In truth, it depends on my mood, too. I may just write it down very quickly, but that's only ever happened with short stories. And even then, I HAVE to, and I mean HAVE to, let it sit. Even if I think it's perfect - it's not.

This is also why I find it hard re-reading some of my published stories. Not one is perfect. I could easily edit them all again.

The other thing i have found about writing/editing is that, yes, take on suggestions, but by in large, we all write differently. What works for me won't work for you. I hate it when some author you admire almost force feeds you a technique and when you try it, and it doesn't work, you think you're a shit writer. You're not. You're you. Do what works best for YOU. If that means binge writing in a deserted hotel over five days to get the first draft of a novel written while eating only beef jerky, then do it. If it takes you 10 years to write the novel (Catcher in the Rye) then take your time. You'll give up quicker if you try being someone else. All of this takes time to figure out. At the same time it takes you to unfetter yourself from the styles of other authors you admire and develop your own voice, you'll develop you're own style of writing.

[WesleySouthard]

I definitely edit as I go. When I start my writing for the night, I'll go back to the day before and go over that with a comb. I wish I had the ability to just blaze through the first draft without a second thought, but my brain won't allow me to do that. I like being able to go back through the manuscript at any time and be satisfied with what I'm producing, without a bunch of mistakes and whatnot that I'll just clean up later. IDK, that's how I work, anyway.

[jmcraven]

My inclination is to edit as I go, but the reults are better, and I am more likely to finish the story, if I complete the rough draft and then revise. It's also good to know the ending when revising the beginning, and sometimes the planned ending gets altered as I'm working.

[Ben Staad]

I definitely edit as I go. When I start my writing for the night, I'll go back to the day before and go over that with a comb. I wish I had the ability to just blaze through the first draft without a second thought, but my brain won't allow me to do that. I like being able to go back through the manuscript at any time and be satisfied with what I'm producing, without a bunch of mistakes and whatnot that I'll just clean up later. IDK, that's how I work, anyway.

This is pretty much what I do as well. When I do this it also helps me reconnect with the flow of the story so picking up where I left off is always so much easier.

[mercuryval]

I definitely edit as I go. When I start my writing for the night, I'll go back to the day before and go over that with a comb. I wish I had the ability to just blaze through the first draft without a second thought, but my brain won't allow me to do that. I like being able to go back through the manuscript at any time and be satisfied with what I'm producing, without a bunch of mistakes and whatnot that I'll just clean up later. IDK, that's how I work, anyway.

I do this as well... but I find the more time I allow to pass before I do a complete second read-through of the finished product, the better I'm able to edit. I'm currently editing something I wrote back in November. While the structure is all there, I'm catching lots of wordiness that's not really pulling its weight, and I'm adding more elements like figurative language to better convey the mood that was in my head when I wrote it. When I read through it back in November, I thought it was pure gold!

[ozmosis7]

Finally finished with my edits on Grave Revelations, the sequel to my first book. Also, received the new artwork for both books, and it is incredible. I have a short break before I start edits on the original book, and then I can share. I am totally psyched how things have been progressing.