My Editing Process

In the previous post, I wrote about returning to editing Chapter Eighteen.  I thought I'd write a few words about what the editing process looks like for me.  What, after editing the previous seventeen chapters, I've figured out is the best way to revise and rewrite, at least as far as I can tell.

So not having seen Chapter Eighteen in a very long time (years, in fact), I had to reread it in detail to become familiar with its contents again.

While the file containing my novel is in StoryMill–writing software I use, which I wrote about some months ago–when I'm editing anything, I prefer copying and pasting it in Pages, Apple's word processing software.  Yes, I could edit in StoryMill.  In fact, I know I should.  But, for me, I'd prefer to put the file I'm working on in a place where I can be as messy as I need to be to get the job done–and not worry about what it looks like.  That's just one of my idiosyncrasies.  All writers have them.

Okay.  So I copied Chapter Eighteen in StoryMill and pasted it in a new document in Pages.  Now what.

Chapter Eighteen has four scenes.  Psychologically, I feel more comfortable editing something if I think I'm working on a smaller project, like a short story, for example.  So, in the single Pages file, I broke up Chapter Eighteen into its four scenes (which could be considered like a short story each).  I began each scene on a new page, within the same file.  Now I was ready to get to work.

I started at the beginning of Scene One.  I believe it's easier to work on subsequent scenes if I know what's happening in the scene preceding it.  One is a continuation of the other, so that makes sense, right?  (Although, if starting in any of the four scenes would work better for you, go right ahead.)

The first step in editing for me is what I call "putting all the pieces in place."  At the time I wrote the first draft of the chapter, I may have thought it contained everything that needed to be there.  But I find that's not always the case.  Sometimes, I identify a piece of a scene that doesn't need to be there.  Then, I delete it.  (I've just remembered another reason why I cut a chapter out of StoryMill and paste it in a Pages file:  Because then I still have a copy of the original document, in case I need to go back and refer to what was there before I made a change in the Pages document.)  Sometimes, I realize I need to add something to the first draft of a scene.  I identify where to insert it and do it right away in the Pages document, while the idea is still fresh in my mind.

Often, I find that, by the time I get to the end of juggling the contents of a scene, I have a real mess on my hands.  I usually like to see what I have in front of me, rather than have to move a document up and down on a screen in order to find what I'm looking for.  So, that being the case, I print a copy of the scene after I've made the initial deletions and insertions.  That way, I can refer to it in subsequent rounds of edits.

And there will be lots and lots of those.  After those initial deletions and insertions, I look at the scene as a rough and rocky road.  Hopefully, I have all the content I want to include–although that might not be the case for some time to come.  In ongoing rounds of edits, I review the scene over and over and over and over and over again, forever making changes, initially large ones, then progressively smaller ones, in the process rounding things off, making things smoother, in the hope of eventually having a paved road on my hands.

It takes a long time to get there.  Some rounds of edits are more productive than others.  Sometimes, I really see what's on the page and make some significant improvements to my work.  Other times, I'm just not into it, and make only the odd improvement here and there.

Here's how I look at improvements.  Even if I review an eight to ten page scene, and make only a few changes, those few changes might be just what I need to see how I need to make even bigger changes the next time I look at the same scene.  I may not see the changes I need to make today, but, because they're there, and because I'm in a different mood or place when I look at them later, I might see something that I know will help me get closer to what I really want to say.    

And here's something else to consider about editing.  Let's say you have a paragraph you love.  You don't want to make any more changes to it…except for that one sentence in the very middle.  It just doesn't sit right with you, for some reason.  

During a round of editing, you might read that one sentence again and, finally, understand what's not working about it, what you need to do to make it better.  So you make the changes to it.  And you're thrilled with that sentence.  Why didn't you see the changes you should have made to it much sooner?

But, the problem is, with those changes you made to that single sentence, all at once, the rest of the sentences in the paragraph–the ones you loved and didn't want to touch again–don't work anymore.  Or parts of them don't work.  The same word is repeated too many times.  Or one sentences no longer flows naturally into the other ones.  What that one sentence has done is change the context of all the sentences around it.

Unfortunately, this means you have to look at all the sentences in that paragraph again, and you have to make some changes to more of them so they all work together.  It's okay.  I say "unfortunately," but I really mean "fortunately."  Every change you make during the editing process, whether you keep the change permanently, or change it again and again and again, puts in increasingly closer to where you want your work to be.

So never become impatient with the editing process.  Never.  Give it all the time it needs.  Keep working until that rough road is smooth.  No time you put into editing is wasted.  You'll see what time and hard work will do to improve your writing.  And, in the end, you'll be grateful you put as much into it as you did.