Go Deeper

So, today, after cleaning up and reorganizing myself like I wrote about in yesterday's post, I completed three rounds of edits on Chapter 5 and two rounds of edits on Chapter 9.  Remember, these two chapters used to be the first two scenes of what was going to be Chapter 12–until I decided they needed to be split up and placed elsewhere in my narrative.

Editing is a funny thing.  You get to the point in a piece when you think the editing is mostly done.  You read what you have, sit back, satisfied that your writing sounds pretty good, and feel the impulse to move on to something else. 

But don't.  Because, over and over again, I've learned that, when you think the editing of a piece is done, it really isn't.  In fact, that's the time to go deeper, to really see what's on the page, to visualize what the characters are doing, and to fine tune exactly what you want to say. 

Here are some of the questions I asked myself during my editing session today:

1.  Am I making the reader feel what's going on?
2.  Am I attending to all the details that make writing, and the story, come alive?
3.  Have I taken enough risks to stretch myself as a writer, and to take my writing to places it wouldn't otherwise go? 

I suspect these are the questions we should always ask ourselves as we edit our work.

No better opportunity exists to make your writing sing than through editing.  Use it, fully.

Happy editing.