Editing is a necessity – but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!
Long ago a friend told me that there are two kinds of writers. Pantsers and Planners.
Planners outline things to a greater or lesser degree. Some have a general plan for a book/story/series – others outline every single chapter before they get down to the business of writing. Lots of planning along the way.
Pantsers sit down and write. You get out the pad and paper or get in front of the keyboard and put out what’s in your head. You may form a plan, possibly plot out back-story or worldbuilding necessities – but generally just go where your mood and the characters take you.
I am a pantser. My only real experience as a planner came when I needed to build my Steampunk world before I could start the story.
However, pantser or planner, once you have written something – if you intend to share it with the world at large it will need to be edited.
Editing is not a one-time-only event. Especially when it comes to fiction and novels.
There is a fine line between over-editing and editing, too.
I love writing – but editing tends to be much more of a chore. Probably because of how it tends to resemble plotting and planning.
Too much editing
This is NOT a habit I have, but I do know many people who have not completed their work because of too much editing.
Rather than get to the end – they pause and edit along the way.
As a pantser, there has been a time or two where along the way the characters and story shifted enough that I had to go back and edit. But that was because I needed to create some foreshadowing and drop hints to get to where I was.
But when you stop what you are doing due to being overly critical of the work you do it can cause a form of paralysis. Analysis paralysis is when overthinking causes you to lose your ability to make decisions and maintain forward motion.
I know more than one would-be author who has tripped themselves up with exactly this. Artists in other mediums, too.
Instead of reaching the end, you spend so much time stopping to edit that you remove your forward motion. It gets in the way of achieving what you may have set out to do and can be utterly frustrating.
I don’t edit until I reach the end unless it is necessary. Maybe it works for some people to do this – but I often find that done is a lot better than perfect anyhow.
Perfection, also, is in the eye of the beholder like beauty.
First edits
When it comes to articles such as this I usually pause for a bit before coming back to edit them. When I do edit them, I read them aloud to make sure that I didn’t make any glaring errors along the way.
Articles such as this only see a self-edit. I haven’t anyone with the time nor inclination (or incentive, frankly) to edit these for me. Also, to be perfectly frank, less editing on a non-fiction essay under 2000 words is a very different matter than on a whole book.
When it comes to editing a book I have written I get to the end and walk away for a bit. Then I go back and begin the process.
First, as I tend to just keep on keeping on as I write, I work on breaking things into chapters and formatting. Also, I tend to maintain files of only 50-60 pages each. So a given novel is going to be multiple files worth (this is an old form of protection against data corruption. In addition to multiple back-ups this helps prevent losing work along the way). But I break down the chapters and insert any necessary breaks in the paragraphs to denote a perspective change, too.
Then I read it out loud. Reading out loud is an outstanding way to find mistakes. When you hear yourself, you may catch something you might otherwise pass up.
Once I have finished my edit, and the story is satisfactory, I assemble it into a formatted variant.
I perform another quick read through to make sure nothing was lost – then send it to a pro.
The need for professional editing
If my work is going to be in print – and people are paying money to read it – someone other than me needs to edit it.
I’m going to miss stuff. That’s the simple truth of it. I am not infallible, and I will miss something. Might be a typo, could be odd phrasing, or something else that just seems right to me but isn’t.
That’s where having a good editor is important.
Once you get the work back from your editor – now comes the next round of editing.
I go over what they have sent me and decide what edits to accept and which to reject. Yes, editors make errors, too – or they lack understanding of certain contexts.
Dialogue, in particular, can get tricky. Sometimes editors want it more formal than you intend it to be. There are times what they suggest is better – but there are also times you can ignore that.
For example, my editor didn’t like the gender-neutral pronouns and my usage of them in Opening Gambit. My editor felt it was offputting and distracting from the story itself. So I ran it by some beta-readers who agreed with me that it worked as it was.
It is vitally important to do this process when you are putting your work out to the public – especially if you are self-publishing. An edited work makes all the difference between quality and junk.
Where editing is problematic for me
Sometimes the editing process causes me analysis paralysis.
Take Harbinger, for example. Book three of The Source Chronicles has been done for a while now. I ran through it twice myself – and had the first 20,000 words looked over by an editor.
It requires a lot of work.
The problem I am running into is that when I was writing Harbinger I had Seeker professionally edited. My editor for that first Source Chronicles book didn’t just edit my novel – she taught me to be a better writer and taught me to be an editor, too.
About halfway through Harbinger, I can see where this took effect. There is a slight shift in tone and direction. But until that point is reached it needs a lot of editing.
That means I need to sit down and work through it. Again. I also need to worry less about shortening it (it’s a real tome) and all of the rest of what can and will go into it (it needs better art for the cover than its predecessors – but then I might need to redo their art, too).
It needs to be done. That means I need to do it. In other words, time for me to suck it up, Buttercup.
I love writing. And editing is a necessity – but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. But I need to work on it all the same. As a write or any form of artist, I have no doubt you can relate to this, too.
Thank you for taking part in my ongoing journey. Thank you for joining me, and for inspiring me and my art.
This is the fifty-ninth article exploring the creative process. Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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