Editing

• Grammar IS important, so we can understand it, but in the first draft write what your heart has inside and go back and edit it later.
• The heart of a writer beats with Story. The mark of a good Storyteller is being able to embellish it and polish it to an entrancing tale.
• We've been editing ourselves since we first needed to impress another human. :)

This week has been about editing.

Firstly, a writer by the name of August Rode supplied a wonderful blog post on ficly.com about editing.

Secondly, I've gotten my first rejection and gone back to really look at the query with fresh eyes. I made a few changes.

I'm always growing and learning, but not only that, I change my mood between readings of my work and that alone can make me notice some errors!

It is true that when we write, we are too close to the work and need to step away from it. I cannot truly edit the same day. Sure, spelling, punctuation, typos are easy, but I have to take time away and look at it much later.

Sometimes I have even revisited a piece a year later, after I had nearly forgotten it, and things jumped out at me that were unclear in my writing, but clear in my head when I wrote it.

If you cannot wait, have others read it, others who are honest and not afraid to tell it like it is. Your part is to accept their words, not fight them.

Lastly, I have had some really awesome sparks of inspiration and been able to jot them down! Even when I build my outlines, I am editing. I write it all out, adding, and then going back to fix the beginning so it all makes sense.

Editing.

It's what makes or breaks a writer.

Some of you may disagree. My good friend Lane does. He has been arguing his viewpoint on ficly.com for a week that people who edit or focus on the elements on editing must obviously view writing as a system and never will see the beauty inside.

Sure, sometimes people get tripped up in pet peeves and refuse to read on, but the tolerant ones can find the good in the misspelled and grammatically incorrect passages.

My co-author also feels similarly, but as I pointed out, that actually makes us teaming up a fortuitous pairing. I smooth his rough edges with a bit of editing and he gets his thoughts out freely. My meticulous and metaphorical writing style gets balanced with the action and villainy of imaginative characters.

What do you think?


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