Edwin Page's Blog: Writing Life - Posts Tagged "preparing-a-manuscript"
The Art of Editing
Editing is the process of polishing a manuscript. It involves paring it down; removing words that are unnecessary. It also involves making minor tweaks to increase the flow of sentences or clarify a point, as well as hunting down the small mistakes, like an 'is' instead of an 'if' and an 's' missing from the end of a word.
It takes a lot of concentration to spy all such mistakes and is quite different from simply reading the work. I think many readers do not realise how much focus us needed for editing.
I read the comments of one reader who asked how hard could it be to find the small mistakes? Well, it's actually quite hard, especially as our own worst enemy is our brain. The brain automatically inserts missing words or changes ones already present so that a sentence makes sense, and so when you edit you have to consciously try and overcome this element of the mind in order to uncover the mistakes.
This is why the editing of Song of the Sea is taking so long. If I were simply reading it, I would have finished days ago, but I am less than halfway through editing it after over a week of working many hours a day.
It takes a lot of concentration to spy all such mistakes and is quite different from simply reading the work. I think many readers do not realise how much focus us needed for editing.
I read the comments of one reader who asked how hard could it be to find the small mistakes? Well, it's actually quite hard, especially as our own worst enemy is our brain. The brain automatically inserts missing words or changes ones already present so that a sentence makes sense, and so when you edit you have to consciously try and overcome this element of the mind in order to uncover the mistakes.
This is why the editing of Song of the Sea is taking so long. If I were simply reading it, I would have finished days ago, but I am less than halfway through editing it after over a week of working many hours a day.
