Editing

Let’s get into the Nitty Gritty of editing…That’s right the one thing that we as writers all hate. If you find yourself loving the editing process as a writer than you are unique and I applaud you for that. On, the other hand I also applaud all of the other writers out there who still stick to it even though it can be tedious.

I myself, enjoy the writing way more than the editing. That doesn’t reflect on the amount I’ve learned and my skills with it. I just love the creative process more. I do however like the creative side to editing as well. When you find a scene that you can elaborate on or you find a person that you missed an opportunity to describe. So every once in awhile I enjoy bits of editing.

My editing process goes as follows…

1. Write…write and write some more until it’s done (obviously you can’t edit a blank page.) I finish (or at least try) to finish the book before I even start editing. Yes, I get slightly sidetracked along the way as I read the previous couple paragraphs that I left off on. That way I can make it as seamless as possible when I continue. However that usually means I try to fix a few things along the way. So of course the writing would be considered part of my editing process as well.
2. Then comes the re-read to make sure everything makes sense and I have characters/vehicles/places/scenes described as needed. This is also when I take my excel spreadsheets I made/printed, and I write any information I feel as though I need on them. (I will write more about the spreadsheets I made in the future, and give you more of a breakdown of what I use. Plus I plan to get a YouTube channel going in the future, to provide extra content for topics such as this.) Any major rewrites would happen here. (I’ve never completely scraped a book and started over because I’ve never felt I needed to but I have rewritten different parts as needed).
3. The timeline….Yeah so this is a big one for my second book to the current one I’m working on. The current one I made the mistake of not even keeping a timeline at first, so I knew what events happened when (Please see my blog article called Timing if your interested in finding out more on this topic.). It made the process a lot more difficult when the time came. While I make sure the timing makes sense and write down each day/ event to keep track I also check for spelling and grammar. I am always checking for those two things.
4. Finally comes the edit where I make sure everything has a good flow. Seamless story line is important. You don’t want to have any hiccups, anything that makes you stop and try to reread to make sense of it, the reader will too. This is also a great time to continue to check grammar, spelling, punctuation etc. ***This is the current edit I am on.
5. Finally comes the beta readers, some of you may believe in finding many different beta readers and making sure it is people found through Facebook or what not. Some of you may not have a choice and that is the route that you have to take. There is nothing wrong with doing that as I have done some beta reading for others through Facebook as well and I understand. However, I have one trusted person who will be my beta reader for all that I write. This one person doesn’t hold back and tells me exactly what they think of my writing without sugar coating it. That person is my husband. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking…that it can’t possibly work that well because he may hold back to save my feelings or what ever. My husband has been asked long ago by me to just be honest and upfront about my writing. In fact some of my best constructive criticism has come from him. If I planned on self-publishing than maybe I would have a few others read it as well but I plan on traditional publishing at this time so I trust that I can provide them with something great to work with.
6. The final editing step (Obviously before an editor with a future publisher will look at it) will be the printed out final read through and adjustments from suggestions from my beta reader. Yes printing out a novel is a lot of paper which I hate to do but that’s why I only do it at the end. Because I believe that when you see it on paper it gives you that different perspective you need to notice every flaw that might be hidden when you are scrolling on a computer screen. My last novel I wrote before this one (the one on a back burner for now) made it to this edit. However, I started noticing that it still wasn’t where I wanted it and that’s when I started working on my current one. (**Here’s a little tidbit… my current novel started as a short story but I felt like it could be more and here I am 463 pages later and a second book in the works lol)

One thing that I forgot to mention was that in between those times I also took a break for a few days or a week in between each editing process to get a clear mind for the next step. Because you want to try to be as unbiased as possible. Every time I read my book I try to pretend that I am a reader picking it up for the first time. Obviously my writing/editing process seems to take awhile but it could be sped up depending on life’s hiccups or interruptions (good or bad) along the way. If my job was to write it would be a different story but I am not to that point in my life yet. So it will take time. Plus this is my first novel I plan to publish, so it has to be as perfect as I can make it without being completely OCD about it lol.

How do your editing processes differ from mine? Or did my process help you put yours into perspective a little? Just leave a comment down below and let me know. I always welcome comments and feedback.

Your process may be different and that’s, OK. You don’t have to write like someone else, or edit like them either. But if there is a part of your process that you can improve on than try to be open to that possibility. That is another way that we can grow as Authors.

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Until next time…JUST KEEP WRITING.

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