The Never Ending Sea of Editing...
How many of you absolutely LOVE editing?
*crickets*
I, for one, really don't like it. Don't get me wrong, I love how my book ends up after editing and revising, BUT getting there is so time consuming and really draining.
When I first started writing, I thought I knew how to edit. Ba ha ha ha ha!! Obviously, I didn't. When I look back at my first manuscript, I shudder. I had no idea what I was doing. After I joined my critique group and found some beta readers, I finally realized how much work I'd actually be doing to get my books polished.
I used to write and edit at the same time. I can't do that anymore. I just get the story out and edit after. Sometimes I'll go back and read what I wrote the night before and fix any glaring mistakes, but I don't do any deep editing until my story is finished.
A lot of people wonder how other writers edit. Me? I'm a list maker. Once I figure out the problems in my book, based off of my beta readers/crit partners feedback, I write everything I need to fix down. I start with the major things first. Like, scene cutting, character cutting, re-writing a scene or two and any plot problems. Once I get those taken care of, I move on to smaller things like doing a search for "just" , "was", "even" ... and deleting half of them. Those are my problem words, FYI. :) I tweak sentences, add more character thoughts, make sure my dialogue is okay, etc.
Each time I finish something, I cross it off my list. I LOVE crossing things off my lists. It makes me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere.
Once I'm finished editing, I have a few more betas read. They catch any leftover mistakes, and once I get their feedback back, I go over things one or two more times. Then I'm usually ready to query or whatever. Well, I think I'm ready to query, even though no one is ever really ready for that, you know? :)
What is your editing process like?
*crickets*
I, for one, really don't like it. Don't get me wrong, I love how my book ends up after editing and revising, BUT getting there is so time consuming and really draining.
When I first started writing, I thought I knew how to edit. Ba ha ha ha ha!! Obviously, I didn't. When I look back at my first manuscript, I shudder. I had no idea what I was doing. After I joined my critique group and found some beta readers, I finally realized how much work I'd actually be doing to get my books polished.
I used to write and edit at the same time. I can't do that anymore. I just get the story out and edit after. Sometimes I'll go back and read what I wrote the night before and fix any glaring mistakes, but I don't do any deep editing until my story is finished.
A lot of people wonder how other writers edit. Me? I'm a list maker. Once I figure out the problems in my book, based off of my beta readers/crit partners feedback, I write everything I need to fix down. I start with the major things first. Like, scene cutting, character cutting, re-writing a scene or two and any plot problems. Once I get those taken care of, I move on to smaller things like doing a search for "just" , "was", "even" ... and deleting half of them. Those are my problem words, FYI. :) I tweak sentences, add more character thoughts, make sure my dialogue is okay, etc.
Each time I finish something, I cross it off my list. I LOVE crossing things off my lists. It makes me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere.
Once I'm finished editing, I have a few more betas read. They catch any leftover mistakes, and once I get their feedback back, I go over things one or two more times. Then I'm usually ready to query or whatever. Well, I think I'm ready to query, even though no one is ever really ready for that, you know? :)
What is your editing process like?
No comments have been added yet.
