100 things, writing, #32, editing redux

[jana_denardo]

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}
100 things #32 - Editing


Editing is arguably the hardest part of writing, and from my point of view, the least fun. The writing, while sometimes frustrating and crazy making, is wildly creative and I usually have so much fun doing it. Writing rarely feels like work.

Editing is work. That what no one really wants after a long day of working (as I certainly do not make enough to survive on my writing at this point) is to come home to even more work. I’m lucky enough to have a couple of beta readers (or, in many cases, one overworked beta reader). That allows me for a double fold edit before this is ever out the door. It goes through their hands and my own and naturally that isn’t enough to cover every mistake I make in that creative wild zone, but it is enough to get the piece in submittable form.

Even though I know it’s necessary, it doesn’t make it something I look forward to. I’ve blogged about this before. So far no one has offered up a way of making it fun. Necessary drudgery it is, then.

I’m trying to edit three pieces, one an older one that might fit a Riptide open call, featuring an incubus who isn’t oh so kind and cuddly but has turned his abilities to help the human detective he’s fallen in love with. It needs to be a bit longer and adding stuff is almost as hard as removing it; another is the scarred soldier story. Both beta readers agree the villain falls away from the storyline in the middle. I can’t argue that. However, I’m having a very difficult time in finding a way to insert him without destroying the flow of the romance. I have at least a few more earlier scenes that better define him; and lastly a Christmas piece.

I worry about this piece the most. The first story has been in a file for well over a year. If it fails again, back it goes. I nearly forgot it. The scarred soldier story will get in a sellable shape. I have no doubts of that but it’s in the middle of a tantrum. It will pass. The Christmas piece only needs line edits and a bit of fluffing out on the sex scene (the problem with writing erotica? I get tired of sex scenes since after a while, it all feels the same). My worries are more content. I never seem to get the story right for the open call. Usually they do get picked up afterwards (Crisis in Faith, The Darkest Midnight in December) but I always seem to fail. Mostly because I like action in my stories and they’re looking for sweet little Christmas romances. Maybe I’m just not capable of those.

Still, I have to put the final touches on the Christmas story and name the damn thing (titling sucks too) and I will put it out there. If it fails, I shall survive, but I’m not going to like editing any more.

Comments

[pan-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I am completely with you about the pain of editing. I am not sure which is worse though; editing your own stuff or editing someone else's. If you ever manage to find some inspiring and fun way to do it, I will pay to hear about it. :)

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I think, in some ways, I'd rather edit someone else's since the hard work of fixing it will be theirs but either way, it's no fun

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Aargh. Editing. D:

I've heard some writers say that they like editing because that's when the story takes shape in its final form. I ... am starting to see what they mean, I guess? Editing is something that I never really do in depth when I write fanfic*, and it took me awhile to realize that my original fiction was going to need much heavier editing because I don't actually have a grasp on who the characters are until I've finished the first draft. When I tried to describe it to a friend awhile back, the way I put it is that plot is easy for me (it always has been), but emotional arcs are really hard, and usually I only realize what the emotional/character arc even IS when I'm about halfway through the story. In fanfic it doesn't come up all that much, because the emotional/character stuff is usually there from the beginning -- it comes from canon, mostly, and I tend to write plotty, adventure-heavy stuff that doesn't have a strong character arc anyway. But in original fic, I usually end up nailing down the emotional stuff towards the end of the first draft, and revising is a matter of teasing it out until the characters pop into focus. I guess where I'm going with that long-winded thing is that I always hated editing as a general rule, but now that I'm writing a lot of original fic I'm starting to enjoy it, because it feels so good to finally know who the characters are and see them coming alive in the second draft.

(*Random side note: most of my blogging is on my fanfic journal, which is the one that I used to friend your fandom journal -- which probably sounds completely stalkery since you don't really know me and we are for the most part not in the same fandoms, but what happened was that I went on a crazed friending jag where I was hunting through my friends-of-friends looking for people who talked about original writing and friended them. I was also trying to keep my fandom journal/original-fic journal split intact, so ... that's why I have you friended on both journals under two different accounts. Anyway, I try not to link the fandom journal too blatantly to my original-fic journal, but if you happen to notice someone you don't know who's got you friended and the first letters of her username are "sho", that's me. *g*)

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I've heard some writers say that they like editing because that's when the story takes shape in its final form. I ... am starting to see what they mean, I guess?

You know, I never really thought of it that way. That's certainly a positive way of looking at things. I like that.

For me, what comes out in the editing is description. I suck at getting it in the first draft. That does, however, slow me down. I have trouble editing anything long any way but a chapter at a time because it's too much for me.

ah okay I'll keep that in mind. I keep my fandom and pro journals separate as well.