Editing
I hate editing! My own stuff that is. Reading through other people's works and fixing small errors here and there is really enjoyable. I love reading a new story, or a revised story and seeing how it plays out.
Editing my own stuff though is time consuming and frustrating. I end up taking out whole chapters in the editing process because I can't stand the way they sound. Usually my writing takes place during the month of November for NaNoWriMo. National November Writing Month. So I am trying to follow a rough outline that I created in October and keep up my word count, usually around work, family time, and Thanksgiving of all holidays where my family usually takes a no-WiFi-available vacation. Now, you'd think, writing is just a pen and paper, or a word document. But when you really need to know the name of that one tiny town and the population of that tiny town you use a lot of fillers and have to go back and google everything when you finally get WiFi again.
Trying to shove a whole bunch of words into a month usually ends up with a LOT of repetition and a LOT of description. So going back and editing means a LOT of removal, dropping your word count from 50,000 down to 30,000 and trying to figure out how real authors can pound out a 300 page book when I'm struggling with 30 pages.
Usually when I edit my own work I can't stand to read it. It sounds childish, or like I've read it before. Taking out huge chunks of something you worked a whole month on is pretty disheartening. I usually don't get to the rewarding point of creating something worth reading. I tend to scrap the project because re-reading it is such a disappointment to me.
Finding a good editor that you trust can be difficult. I get minimum wage for part-time work so paying someone to do it is pretty much out of the question. I am still too self conscious about my work for my friends to read it though I know they would provide me with the constructive criticism I need.
Editing is the beast of writing. I just went to a panel on writing and the author/speaker basically said truthfully the only way to get better at writing - and there by not needing an editor as much, is to continue writing. It gets easier after about a million words or so. ^_~ She also then added, but to be fair she did just finish editing a novel that she took 50,000 words out of. She basically had to edit out a novel, from her novel. Which also just proves that we never don't need editing, and it is always hard. But it's a way of life for us writers.
ReplyDeleteAnd no one says you have to delete delete that either. She stores the pulled sections because you never know when you may want to use some of that information or ideas later down the road for another book in that series or maybe it will help for another book/series all together.
That's a great idea to edit out parts and save them for later. There have been a few times when I wish I had saved a portion because it worked later in the story.
DeleteAmanda
If you want a good writing program to look into? Scrivener is a good one to look into. It saves all the files for one book under a project. And there's a section to add inspiring photos to it, a place to keep notes on your characters, on locations, and if you cut a chunk out in it, you can throw it in a folder for saving for later. I'm going to be getting in the next month or so myself.
Delete