EDITING!!!
Hey, all.
In my humble experience, there is no harder job for an author than editing. Let me explain, in case this thought isn't obvious.
Writing is a purely creative process. Very little is put into going back through a draft and fixing things that don't gel together or that break the story in some way. It's wonderful! It's grand! It can be difficult, but it's something that you can do with your creative juices flowing.
But editing and revision is a different beast altogether. And I mean beast in a very real sense. It's hard. And I mean really hard. I'm sure nearly everyone reading this has written something either in school, for work or in a novel that has needed revision at some point. And you know it's hard to do.
Now, if you're doing it yourself, things can seem to go pretty smoothly, relatively speaking. While you aren't getting a lot of feedback from people, ... well, you're not getting a lot of feedback from people. So naturally, you're going to move much faster through a draft and it'll be much closer to your original draft. But this isn't a good thing.
The best editors buy red ink in gallons. And they've usually shed every vestige of humanity and sold their souls to the devil. That's a good editor, because they will rip your precious baby manuscript to pieces without any thought to your feelings, all in order to make that baby grow up to be a big, strong manuscript that you can submit with confidence. It's painful to have some stranger come in and say that such-and-such doesn't make any sense, or a certain part of the story (that connects perfectly in your mind) has no context or some such.
Remember, you're your own worst critic. But criticism is inherently destructive. But good editing is much harder to pin down, as it feels like criticism, but it's more of a critique. The main difference between the two being that criticism tears down, and a critique gives you a chance to improve. There's rarely a negative comment in a critique unless you're taking it that way.
In all, when talking to an editor, you have to check your ego at the door. Leave behind any strongly held feelings you might have, as these could only cause you to feel crushed when someone comes by and says they need to change. Accept critiques—they're one of the only ways to grow.
Now a final word on criticism. This is where things start to get shady. If you're revising your own work and all you feel is depression for the work you've done, get someone else's eyes on it. Fast. There's nothing worse than going back through your own baby and seeing all the blemishes that you left behind: the plot-holes, ambiguities, confusion and plain poor writing. Everyone has it. Maybe you had a bad day and your material wasn't up to what your current standard is. But guess what? That's the time when you need to take a step back and think: what can I improve upon? For example, I used to have a big problem with staging. Now in everything I write, I try to describe action before anything then provide dialog. If characters are having a rapid-fire conversation, I won't set it, but it's something I've changed a lot of in my second (well...third, I guess...) go-around of my manuscript. It's hard and time-consuming. But it's making my manuscript a lot more readable. Even I can see it. And being my own harshest critic, that's nearly praise.
In short, edit. Revise. Don't kill yourself or sell yourself short, but realize that everything can improve.
Signing off!
In my humble experience, there is no harder job for an author than editing. Let me explain, in case this thought isn't obvious.
Writing is a purely creative process. Very little is put into going back through a draft and fixing things that don't gel together or that break the story in some way. It's wonderful! It's grand! It can be difficult, but it's something that you can do with your creative juices flowing.
But editing and revision is a different beast altogether. And I mean beast in a very real sense. It's hard. And I mean really hard. I'm sure nearly everyone reading this has written something either in school, for work or in a novel that has needed revision at some point. And you know it's hard to do.
Now, if you're doing it yourself, things can seem to go pretty smoothly, relatively speaking. While you aren't getting a lot of feedback from people, ... well, you're not getting a lot of feedback from people. So naturally, you're going to move much faster through a draft and it'll be much closer to your original draft. But this isn't a good thing.
The best editors buy red ink in gallons. And they've usually shed every vestige of humanity and sold their souls to the devil. That's a good editor, because they will rip your precious baby manuscript to pieces without any thought to your feelings, all in order to make that baby grow up to be a big, strong manuscript that you can submit with confidence. It's painful to have some stranger come in and say that such-and-such doesn't make any sense, or a certain part of the story (that connects perfectly in your mind) has no context or some such.
Remember, you're your own worst critic. But criticism is inherently destructive. But good editing is much harder to pin down, as it feels like criticism, but it's more of a critique. The main difference between the two being that criticism tears down, and a critique gives you a chance to improve. There's rarely a negative comment in a critique unless you're taking it that way.
In all, when talking to an editor, you have to check your ego at the door. Leave behind any strongly held feelings you might have, as these could only cause you to feel crushed when someone comes by and says they need to change. Accept critiques—they're one of the only ways to grow.
Now a final word on criticism. This is where things start to get shady. If you're revising your own work and all you feel is depression for the work you've done, get someone else's eyes on it. Fast. There's nothing worse than going back through your own baby and seeing all the blemishes that you left behind: the plot-holes, ambiguities, confusion and plain poor writing. Everyone has it. Maybe you had a bad day and your material wasn't up to what your current standard is. But guess what? That's the time when you need to take a step back and think: what can I improve upon? For example, I used to have a big problem with staging. Now in everything I write, I try to describe action before anything then provide dialog. If characters are having a rapid-fire conversation, I won't set it, but it's something I've changed a lot of in my second (well...third, I guess...) go-around of my manuscript. It's hard and time-consuming. But it's making my manuscript a lot more readable. Even I can see it. And being my own harshest critic, that's nearly praise.
In short, edit. Revise. Don't kill yourself or sell yourself short, but realize that everything can improve.
Signing off!
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