Editing: Be Blunt, Be Brutal!

Quick note: I was editing posts from my phone and scheduling them because I knew that the week would be busy... it turns out that I deleted each post... but I'm going to write them all out again, to the best of my knowledge.

This post is one in a bunch of posts I'm going to be doing on editing, there's no schedule, but they'll just be going up whenever I have free post slots.


Be Blunt, Be Brutal! 

There is no space for wimpish behaviour in editing... not for me, not for you, and certainly not for you readers! They don't want a poorly edited book on their Kindle... so cut the crap, and start editing properly.


Joe's top tip: if in doubt, then cut it out! 

The best way to spot an error is to read you work aloud, and if you're getting tongue tied doing that, then you know you've got some editing to do.

I've found that as I write I like to describe a lot... and that isn't the aim of the game... the aim is to tell a story and give the reader somewhere to escape to, they don’t want to work, they want to be sucked into a book… and let’s face it, that’s why Twilight worked… it wasn’t well written, but a lot of people escaped into her world.

I compiled a list of words in a previous post, and I really believe that cutting some of the those words will actually make your writing so much better. So be blunt with those words, and be very brutal, that's the only way you can overcome the dreaded monster inside that wants to protect your baby.



I thought the picture of Jack Nicholson from The Shining was very fitting with this post, although not like trying to get an axe through a door, writing is much easier, or at first it might seem like trying to get an axe through a door, editing does get easier.





Joe's top tip: leave it to the end, don't get sidetracked by a different state of mind.




Your writing mind and your editing mind are two different states. The creative side, the writing, is your muse, and the editing side is fixed and focused on cutting out dead words, redundancies, run-on sentences etc. and if you're continuously switching between the two you'll most likely fall prey to The Block.




So don't start editing until you've finished, and don't edit like a wimp... edit with a fury in your eyes and the need in your loins, the need to make your manuscript better.


SO START CHOPPING MY FRIENDS. 




Are you a brutal editor?

Don't you just love editing a finished piece?




-Joseph 


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