The Edits Pt 2
I really love editing. That’s weird, I know. But once the initial shock has worn off (my golly there’s that much wrong with it oh no oh no) I find it much easier to have a problem to fix, then to have nothing at all to work on. That’s easily the worst part of writing in a vacuum – the lack of feedback, the lack of anything at all. Am I doing anything right?
Which is probably why I write so fast. As I waited to hear back from my publisher regarding the story edits on my first book, I wrote another book. It had been planned for a while, and I’d mapped out the chapter beats already, but I think I finished writing the majority of it within three months. This, I’m finding more and more, comparatively is quite fast (please correct me if all authors do this and I’m insane). So I am quite quick in churning out content.
And this is because I prefer to edit then I do to write.
Hemingway said, “write drunk and edit sober” and while I don’t subscribe to the drinking part, I definitely subscribe to the essence of what he was saying. I like to describe it as writing from the gut, and editing from the brain. I try to let my books just come out of me, and not put too much thought into construction. I find if I get overly thoughtful my prose is robbed of some of its humanity. If I overthink I stop my heart. It’s the same difference between writing a song on sheet music, vs jamming an improvised solo. The written song may be more textured, brilliant, layered, etc. But the solo is raw. The solo is real.
Judd Apatow, I’ve heard, calls this the vomit pass. Just regurgitate all the stuff that’s been bubbling up inside you onto the page. The first draft won’t resemble much, but there’ll be some magic there you’ll be able to shape. It’s much easier to mould clay already on the table, then to completely imagine the clay, the vase, your fingers in the mould.
I love to edit. I love going back over my instinctual writing-from-the-gut prose and finding these little moments I hadn’t remember writing. I also love going back and finding some awkward moments, some inconsistent character beats, because then, at least, I have something to work on.
On a completely unrelated but sort of related note, below is me playing bass in my somewhat successful-in-an-underground-ska-way band in 2014. This was a reunion gig we did. I guess this is where my love for jamming on a book comes from. This and a deep panic that if I don’t finish a draft quickly, I never will.
