Editing is Not Work

 
Not the way I do it, anyway.
 
What I call "editing" is reading through my work and doing one or more of the following as I go:

Correcting typos
Fixing word choice
Excising extraneous, unnecessary verbiage
Clarifying the prose
And, on the final read-through-edit, addressing issues brought up by first readers

 
Note the lack of "story fixing" in that list. I don't consider that part of editing. Getting the story right is writing, and that happens long before editing.
 
This process takes time, and a bit of effort, but I don't consider it work. It's actually fun. Almost relaxing. I'm reading something I wrote and (usually) happy with how much it doesn't suck. I'm enjoying my own creativity while I make it slightly better. How could that be work?
 
What I call "line editing", though, is not fun. It is very much work. I run the draft, a chapter at a time, through the Serenity Editor software and review its line-by-line recommendations. It's tedious as all hell, but it catches the bulk of the remaining typos and tightens the prose.
 
Today I finished primary editing of GoSH1. Which means it's all work-work-work from now on. Next week I'll start the line editing. After that, the formatting for ebook and POD.
 
Have a great weekend!
 
-David
 
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Learn to Edit Your Own WorkGunwitch Editing BeginsPublishing Seemed Less Work When I Didn't Know Any Better