Michael, over at “In Time…” has had a series of posts this week about his editing process. Hop over and take a look, because it’s a great perspective on the process. Like me, and so many of the rest of you, he’s polishing his novel for ABNA (I finally figured out the URL. Whoever started dumbing things down for people never took into account how some of us have the grand ability to overcomplicate everything).
So I’m reading his posts, and thinking “That’s cool. And that is so not me.” Which is exactly why you should go read them. Because the deeper I dive into this, the more I realize there’s no way my process would work exactly for someone else. Because you know, snowflakes and stuff. Everyone is different, everyone works differently. But if you take snippets of advice from each and every person who offers it, you can find what works for you.
For instance, he does grammar/line edits first. Removes unneeded words, cleans up grammar, etc.
Not me. I’m like 110% the opposite. If I’m reading through and something catches my eye I fix it, but on the second read-through I’m not concerned about grammar, punctuation, excessive use of the word ‘though’ (my most recent crutch word), or sentence structure. Because I remove and replace so much on a second draft that I’m likely to take out half of what I just clean up and replace it with more mess.
So yesterday I was in the process of cleaning up plot consistencies toward the middle and end of my book. And it sucked, And right around the middle of the story I decided I hated the middle of the story and wanted to delete it and forget it every existed. Like 20k words of it. Which is when I walked away and swore that next time I started plot revisions, I would start there instead of the beginning of the book, so that I would be fresh.
And I went back to do my line-edits. And it was very obvious that I hadn’t done it yet. I stared at it this morning and just started deleting, rearranging, removing redundancies, replacing awkward phrasing, all that. It’s going well. I still have hope for the story.
If I can get past the fact that I never want to edit the middle. *sigh*.
How do you tackle editing?
Hi, Loralie,
Thanks for the shout out. I am sorry you’re having this editing nightmare. It’s tough when your feel you need to pull 20,000 words.
I had problems like that with my first novel. I ended cutting out half of the original. It hurt, but it had to be done.
I am currently editing my third novel for my ABNA entry. This novel flowed right from the beginning for me. I was lucky it all fell into place, so the editing isn’t a nightmare.
After I finish up with my third, I’m going back to redo the first two… They need a bit more polishing.
Good luck. I know you’ll figure it out.
Michael
I don’t have steps yet. I’ve only edited short stories, and those are even rare as well. I am considering the read it out loud approach along with reading backwards (for the grammar and spelling). As for larger content, I’m hoping beta readers will help with that, though I do most of the big things during rewrites instead of edits. I haven’t finished the YA draft 2 but I already know I’m going to go back and change something now that I’ve thought about it more. Other than that, who knows how I will edit. First, I need to get the draft done so I can take a week or two off before a quick edit, then I can send to readers.