Editing?

[kitty_fic]

What? Why? How? Help!

This is one of the reasons I know that I'm not cut out to be a professional writer.

Editing... I hate it. :C

How do you stand reading and rereading the same words over and over again. And I'm only working on about 3-4k... how does anyone edit long things?

/whine

But seriously what is your process? How do you get through it without banging your head on a wall. *looks at wall longingly*

Comments

[blossomdreams.livejournal.com]

If it's a drabble I can read through it pretty easily, but when it's something longer I normally set aside three days to do it. I have to read through it first and edit things out, then read it out loud when I'm by myself or whisper it at home in the living room >< and on the third day I read it again. If I have some time I'll go work on something else then come back to it. If I like it then and it's less urges to edit more things out then I call it a success! But I have to break longer projects up. I learned the hard way on trying to do a 25k fic in one day ><.

[kitty_fic]

I like your idea of reading through it for three days instead of trying to do it all in one day! I bet some rest and fresh eyes are a good thing!

[vaysh]

I love editing. :D The hard part, for me, is getting the words on the page. Then they are there and I can make them better. It is so much easier than having the white page/screen in front of me. My process is rather muddled as I keep re-reading and editing all the time while I continue writing. Usually, before I get back to writing more of a fic, I re-read what I already have and edit it. Which is why I usually have a pretty good first draft. I am vain enough to say that I love reading what I write. ;) It probably shows in my stories because I write them for myself mostly, and my taste is odd at the best of times. While editing, I usually know which spots in a story still need work, and the rest my beta will point out to me. And most of the time a deadline is looming, so there isn't even that much time for much editing.

[kitty_fic]

See, yes, my processs is like that too and it's driving me a bit crazy. I tend to reread so many times that I get sick of reading my words. I think the repetitious nature is boring to me. Maybe I need to try to love reading what I write a little bit more! LOL

[vaysh]

Do read you stories out loud? I find that helps a whole lot. :)

[kitty_fic]

That would definitely be worth a try! Thanks for the tip!

[kitty_fic]

I do most of my editing while writing too but it's the repetetiveness of reading and rereading that bores me :(
I'm so not a detail oriented person and I think that is my problem! I want to write it and be done! By the time I've read it so many times I'm sick of it. lol

Don't mind me, I'm just being whiny XD

[kitty_fic]

Yes you are absolutely right!

Like someone else said in this thread:
"Do I love it? No, but still must be done."

It's not nice, but it is it he truth XD

[knowmefirst.livejournal.com]

Every single time, I start to write I go over what I have so far and edit it. Then I continue to write by the end of a story I have edit it more than 10 times and still do it before sending it to a beta and then when I get it back. Do I love it? No, but still must be done. However, at the end I know that story back and forth :) and sometimes end up hating it because of how many times I read it.

[kitty_fic]

Do I love it? No, but still must be done.

^this
So true!

But yes I feel that way too- after I've read it so many times I'm sick of it!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I edit as I go, which is for the best as I have a few issues from being hit in the head with two tonnes of taxi. Rereading sections a few times as I work through a piece helps me to better remember what has already gone before in a story, and also lets me pick up quickly on all the small errors I introduce due to a combination of right hand/brain being slightly out of sync and mild aphasia (damn nouns! First to go every time!) I often write after work and these are both more pronounced when I am tired.

Editing as I go also lets me keep a tight hold on the tone of a story, which sometimes changes from what I thought it was going to be when I set off. Perhaps a problem is smaller, so it needs people to be worried rather than terrified. Perhaps a story wants to be a comedy rather than a drama, so it needs a certain archness throughout rather than being straightforward with the occasional funny line. These things are reasonably easier to reassess on the fly and to tweak the tale to make what comes before go with what is happening now, whereas if you leave it until the end, it is a lot more work to smooth everything out into a coherent whole.

In terms of process, for editing on the fly, I have a notebook beside me in which I list all the major events of the story: things that are written in are ticked off with pencil, things I planned to write then changed my mind about are crossed out with pen. I also have a list of all names and their correct spelling. I try to run a non-automatic spellcheck once every few days where I Ignore All for the names that are correct: super fast way of spotting hard typos.

I try to read through first and just change paragraphs that have issues to underlined or red or some other super-easy change so that I don't have to stop and make big fixes at that point. This read is partially for spotting typos and such, but mostly for spotting sections that drag or that spend too long away from the main action. If there are sections that just aren't working, I usually need to solve that problem before I can move on with the story. I don't always need to write it up: sometimes I can just highlight a section and put in a note like CUT BY A THIRD – TIGHTER, MORE ACTION, MAKE MORE PHYSICAL, which solves the problem in my head even if I still need to do the work later. If I have a bit of time, I will do all the little typo fixes after this read. If I have a lot of time, I will do a second proofing read and spot as many literal errors as possible.

I don't read through the whole thing every time I sit down to write, because I write long things and I would run out of time. But I do read through the most recent scene or scenes to make sure that new writing fits in as seamlessly as possible.

Ideally, I get to the end of a piece before sending it off to beta: this is not always possible for fest fics due to deadlines. For significant changes made after a beta sees it, I colour them in green or blue or some such so that it is easy to find them and the beta can just look to them for sanity or typing rather than reading through the whole thing again. I also try to have a two or three-day break before reading through the story as a whole. Here I again try not to get bogged down looking for small edits, but instead am looking for big issues: the wrong tone, sections that drag, characters who stop acting the right way or who change for no reason. If I have time, I will do a final proofing read which I sometimes do paragraph by paragraph and backwards, as it stops you getting lost in the story.

At all times I keep my notebook by my side so that I can make notes like HOUSE BURNS DOWN AT 3000 WORD MARK, X LEARNS ABOUT IT AT 4200, Y AT 5000. I also make meta notes about the timeline so that I can let things that happen 'offscreen' filter into the story, too. A story might only need 10 pages of notes, or it might end up with a whole notebook.

[kitty_fic]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and so many good ideas!

I espcially love this idea:
I have a notebook beside me in which I list all the major events of the story: things that are written in are ticked off with pencil, things I planned to write then changed my mind about are crossed out with pen.

That is really a good tip that I think could work for me!

As is the idea to change the font color or underline problem areas to come back to later.

I do tend to get bogged down with the small edits and it's frustrating.

Reading for spag later paragraph by paragraph, backwards is a great idea also!

Your notebook process looks really intereting as a whole! I'd love to have a whole post dedicated to what all that encompasses! :D

Thanks for sharing!

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Brammers and I have a very similar process. I think what is really important is to keep what you want to say front and center. I'm not a huge outliner because I love the process of finding a piece of fiction in the process of writing it, but I never start a story without having a firm concept of what I want to say. This helps with the editing process. In a longer fic, I generally rereading the chapter befure the chapter I'm going to write so that I get a sense of the flow. This often helps with transition errors and also typos (some. it's hard to catch them all). Also it gets me in the mood. And also I often get insight into what's missing or what could be added next as part of character development. I think if you look at editing as merely a SPAG process, then you might be selling the process short. Look at it as a way to see things in a better or perhaps a "brighter" light.

[kitty_fic]

Some good tips! Thanks!
I think my problem is my attitude about the whole process, so I'm trying to take some of the positive input here and put it to use!