HawkeMoon Updates: Edits
Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alicecahill/31622378722/
This blog entry will be a shorter one as it is a holiday on Monday in the US (which means a 3 day weekend for me). Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some writing done over the weekend–along with a movie over the holiday (I also have yardwork to do that I’ve put off for a couple of weeks, so it won’t be all fun and games).
HawkeMoon
However, I wanted to just let you know that the editor for StoryHack sent me the file for the edits to my story HawkeMoon. He turned on the “Track Changes” function and I need to go through and look at the edits that he made. According to the notation at the head of the file, there are approximately 217 changes to be looked at/gone through, so hopefully, I can get this done in a reasonable amount of time.
Love or Hate the Process?
Many writers, especially after they reach a certain level of success in writing, hate the process of “editing” their work. Not going to go on a tangent, but you see it all the time: writers whose earlier works are wonderful, but their later works are far less effective because they want their original draft to be their only draft.
For me, I (for the most part) like the editing process, especially when the editor is truly trying to shape the piece of writing so that it can be the best that it can and so that it will shine. I’m hopeful that no matter what level of success I finally achieve with my writing, that I will be a part of the editing process and not resistant to it.
The only time I’m truly resistant to external editing or I hate the process is when the suggestions are going to change the spirit of my story. I make no secret of my disdain for the current love of “bad things happening to good people” sub-genre in fiction thanks to Game of Thrones (one of these days I need to actually explain what that whole sub-genre is, but not today). However, if an editor tries to change my work into a nihilistic story or into a story that resembles GoT (or whatever is fashionable at the time), that’s where I have problems with the process. For me, editing is about making the story better, not turning it into something its not because that’s the current “style” at the moment.
So, I personally don’t hate the editing process, but I do like a lot more when I can see that the changes are there to help the story be the best that it can be even if it isn’t “fashionable.” I’ll keep you updated on the progress of HawkeMoon and I hope you have a great weekend!
Sidney
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Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora WolfRead Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
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Current Work-in-Progress–February 2019: Project Dog (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 1st Draft — Character Draft “Finished”)Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32)
