Editing

Here's the thing about editing:  Every time you sit down to edit your work, you'd like to think you're fully engaged in what you're doing.  But there's a good chance you're not.  I've found this, anyway.

You know how I know that?  Because, as I've worked on editing the three scenes of Chapter One–using feedback my beta reader provided–sometimes the words register, and sometimes they don't.  Too often, they don't.  Not to the degree I wish they did.   

Then I get a day like this past Wednesday.  To use an old cliche, it's like I'm firing on all cylinders.  I read the words I've written, and it's as if I've seen them for the first time.  Really.  At least in the way I need to see them.

The meaning of each word is perfectly clear, as is the meaning of the phrases and sentences the words make up.  A word or phrase, I thought said exactly what I wanted it to, falls short.  Doesn't quite get there.  Another word, or another construction of a phrase comes to me, and I know, for a fact, I've finally gotten there. 

That's usually when I sit back and wonder, why didn't I see that before?  Why did I read it a dozen, two dozen, six dozen times or more, and not see it?  Because I was so used to what I'd written, so sure it was right, that, when I read it, it didn't fully register.  I wasn't in it.  I wasn't there, seeing the action unfold as I'd written it. 

The trick, then, is not to accept anything you've written–not to become complacent–until you know for sure that it's exactly right.  A tough thing to do, because it's tough to stop our lives from going on around us, even for a short time, and to focus only on that one piece of writing.  But that's what we must try to do, every time we sit down to work.

You'll know when you finally get it right.  Not only will your head tell you it's right, but your heart will too.  When you know in your heart that the words you've captured on the page ring as true as they possibly can, make the image you've created stand up and seem as if three-dimensional…well, then, you'll know you finally have it.

And there's no better feeling.  Especially to a writer.