Real creativity is in the editing!

Apr 21 2008

Editing gets a bad name on the mean streets of the literary community. A lot of this negative reputation stems from younger writers who are eager to get their work out into the world and think the first draft is perfectly fine after a few minor tweaks. I have known many writers out there who think exactly this, and wonder why their work never gets published.

But editing is a lot more than just looking for typos, grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, run-on sentences, etc. When I think of editing, I think of taking a short story (for example) and re-working it until the story presents a unified experience for the reader. In other words, the story achieves its desired effect.

The re-working of a manuscript means everything from totally cutting out sections of the story (probably the hardest part for me), adding in new sections when needed (this might be the hardest to do well), tweaking various sentences and paragraphs to avoid vagueness and making sure all the elements of fiction do their job.

Where is the creativity in all that?

When I write a short story, the first draft is usually pretty messy because I just try to write and get all my ideas down onto paper first. Yes, a lot of creativity does go into this, and I’m not trying to diminish that. But the first draft is more of a sprint to the finish line before my brain runs out of ideas.

However, once the first draft is complete, I now have a "frame" to work with. From that point on I can shape the story into its final form. And more often than not, that final form is much different than what I originally envisioned. During the editing process I will often discover that certain elements of the story just aren’t working out as planned. Maybe a character isn’t all that believable and needs to be cut out altogether. Maybe the setting is too generic. Maybe that car chase scene is too long and drawn out and not very believable. The list of possibilities during the editing process can be quite long.

Always have someone else read you work too!

This can’t be overstressed, especially if you want to submit your manuscript for publication. You should have at least one other person (the more the better) read your work so you can get their honest opinions about it. This is where it gets tricky, however, because you need to chose that person carefully. Family and friends are out since they are too attached to you emotionally and will probably hold back on legitimate criticism. A good choice is someone in your creative writing class, former teacher/professor, or heck, you can even hire a pro to do this!

The reason why it is so important to have someone else read your work is because there are many mistakes you will simply not catch. I’m not talking just about spelling and grammatical errors. I’m talking about serious holes in your plot structure, major character flaws that might ruin the whole story, and even errors in your timeline that are obvious, yet you still missed them. I have had people read a short story I just finished writing, then asked me about such-and-such hole in the plot and Wham! My story has to be rewritten! It’s not pretty, but it still beats sending out a less-than-perfect manuscript in an already overcrowded marketplace.

Don’t fall into the "endless edit" trap

For all the virtues of editing I’m preaching right now, you still should be careful and not fall into the trap of editing that story right out of existence. It is possible and I have done it before. There comes a time when you have to say that your story is finished and there’s nothing more you should do without impacting the quality of the work.

How do you know when that point is? It is different for everyone. You learn by writing a lot and reading a lot of fiction. Knowing when a writing project is finished is almost like a "sixth sense" among writers. We just know. Or your writing professor tells you that your story is finished because the deadline has already passed.

What do you think is the most important part of the writing process? The first draft? Editing? How many revisions do you go through before you consider your project to be finished?

3 Responses

I think that it all comes down to personal style, but It is my feeling that editing SHOULD be the part that most writers spend the most attention too. Prose can be easy once you get in the flow, but sculpting sentances, improving readability and just keeping the story moving are important.
By the way love the blog design, its awesome

Steve Mills 4/21/2008 11:32 pm
You are totally right! The multi-published authors all say that good writing can happen the first time around, but great writing comes in the revisions (note the “s” in revisions).
Hey Brad, who designed your Blog logo? Beautiful work!

sherpeace 4/22/2008 8:36 pm
Very nice post Brad! I think the most important part of the writing process is definitely the first draft because that’s where one actually looks back and reads what he/she wrote! It involves almost everything, such as editing! For revisions, it depends on the person and what he/she thinks about it.

Jess 4/28/2008 2:38 pm