Creative writing - From think to ink - Lindstrom Simeon 2015

The editing process

Here be dragons. Editing can be the cauldron in which you brew up your unfinished scratchings into perfect literary elixirs — or it can be a whole lot of bubble and trouble.

A good process is to have some sort of rough draft period where you write down what you need to without restraint. Give yourself the creative free-reign to just put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and get everything out. Write quickly and don’t go back or pause to fix anything. The name of the game here is speed, and to get volume.

Once you’re satisfied you’ve got it all out, it’s up to you to decide where you’ll take the editing process from there. There are a few approaches:

Write Fat, Edit Lean

The idea is to spew out a lot of words, and then go back later, picking through the rubble to find the gems. Your editing here is getting rid of the junk to reveal the good stuff hidden within. This is a good method if you like banging away a keyboard and like to build up a good momentum. Avoid this technique if you don’t ever feel like you get a good rhythm going and don’t get the impression you could just sit and write for 10 minutes solid.

Write Lean, then Plump It Up

The other way is to first piece together a skeleton and then go back later to fatten it up with “prettier” writing. I personally find this style less appealing, and I believe it may be more useful for non-fiction writing …but it’s really up to you.

Once you have your initial chunk and you’re ready to do your editing, you also need to decide on your method. You could print things out with large font and generous spacing and then manually go through with a highlighter or red pen (this is fantastic and I love doing it this way) or you could simply do multiple “sweeps” over your text using the same word processor you wrote it in.

Some people like to print things out, then literally chop up the paragraphs and shift them around if part of their editing means changing up the order and pacing of events. Another good technique is to read it all aloud to find places where the flow is “sticky” and where you need to adjust punctuation. If it sounds good, it’ll probably read nicely, too.

A good technique to do rather extensive editing is to go through the text with different coloured highlighters. Make marks on the paper depending on how you feel as you read. For example, use pink to make a mark the moment you start losing interest. Use green to show where you felt a little confused. Use yellow to show where you were reading faster because you were really excited about what would happen next.

This is a fun exercise to ask someone else to help you with — the kind of feedback you’ll get from them will be far more useful than anything else they’ll give you. Look at the response and ask yourself — why did they lose interest here? Are my sentences too long? Am I just repeating myself in this paragraph? Do this a couple of times with different people if you like.

You might like to take your editing process to your writing group, if they do that sort of thing. They will most likely only be able to give you general feedback (“I don’t like the first person voice here”) but it’s a good start. Alternatively, hire a freelancer online to go through your work and give you feedback. It’ll help if you ask them to answer specific questions for you:

·  What part did you like best?

·  What part did you like least?

·  Can you find any grammatical errors?

·  Can you find any spelling errors?

·  Can you find places where the word choice or sentence structure can be changed so the meaning is clearer?

·  What do you think about the length of the piece in general?

·  What do you think of the tone?

·  Is the “voice” correct and consistent? (i.e. first, second or third person)

·  Are then tenses consistent?

·  Are there any logical inconsistencies?

·  Did you generally like the piece?

·  Where the characters relatable, real and likeable?

·  Was the argument, if there was one, persuasive?

·  What would you change?

·  Would you like to read more of the same? Why or why not?

·  What do you think about the paragraph length and sentence length?

·  Are there any overused words or expressions?

If you’re eliciting the feedback and help from another person, be a grownup and be prepared for whatever they tell you. Make it safe for people to tell you the truth, or you’re asking to be put in a bubble to protect your ego. Anonymous feedback is often the best for this reason — people have no incentive to lie to you. Thank the person for their perspective (even if it makes you feel bad) and use the information wisely. You’re not compelled to change everything a person doesn’t like, but try to be neutral and rational about it.

Finally, the editing process must, at some point, stop.

This is tricky because for the most part, you could go on forever if you wanted to. Don’t expect to ever reach perfection. Don’t expect a moment where you’ll be so thrilled with a piece you can’t imagine changing a single thing. But do try to reach a point where you know you’ve put in the work, where you’re sure the message is there, more or less, and where you’re happy to take the lessons you’ve learnt from it and move on.

Often, the real improvements come with the next piece, and in a sense, everything you write is a rehash of the same story you keep on telling throughout your life. The key is not to let obsession with the perfection of one piece keep you from working on other things, or sap your energy and self esteem to keep writing.

Many times, the temptation to tinker with something you’ve already written is just a procrastination technique to stop you from writing something else. Do your best. Work on it, a lot. Then know when to let go and try something else.