Comments on: For the Love of Editing

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:40:11 +0000

Lacey – Well, I don’t love it all the time. 😉

Suzanne – I have no idea whether I’m good it either. Still haven’t heard back from the ed. 🙂

Kaily – that’s a really interesting way of doing it. I have to say, I can’t stop and edit as I go otherwise I’ll never get it finished. It tends to bog me down. As to writing linearly, I do that but if a scene isn’t flowing, I will jump ahead to a scene I’m really clear on. My problem is then joining the two scenes up cause I hate doing it! 🙂

By: Kaily Hart

Kaily Hart — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:04:27 +0000

I have a hate – hate relationship with editing. As I write, I have to edit as I go. I try to limit it, but it’s that darned perfectionist that kicks in. I can’t leave something that isn’t the best I can do at the time. I usually always look over what I’ve done the prior day and inevitably I’ll update it some. I do like to go back and polish once I have a good draft down, but I hate having to rewrite, particularly if it’s extensive. I also kind of write all over the map. I can’t really write linearly so it probably lends itself to more editing during the first pass. It’s kind of like shooting a movie where I’ll ‘film’ all diffferent scenes in totally random order and fit them together after the fact. Sometimes, I’ll even sequence them differently than I originally thought. Weird, right?

By: Suzanne Jones

Suzanne Jones — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:35:28 +0000

I do love editing – it’s just doubtful that I’m any good at it.

🙁

By: Lacey Devlin

Lacey Devlin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:55:36 +0000

I hope I can find the love like you and Maisey 🙂 The funny thing is I love to tinker too and yet when it comes to editing you’ll probably find me cleaning the house instead. Good for the house, bad for the ms…

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:15:42 +0000

Rach – I say I’m happy with my story NOW. Tommorrw I’ll hate it! 🙂

Maisey – that’s it exactly. Making your MS better is so great. Like adding conflict where there was none – it’s like a whole other story!

Maya – yeah, tinkering is great fun isn’t it? Mind you, the last time I had revisions, I tinkered too much!

By: Maya

Maya — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:18:19 +0000

I love editing, revisions, rewrites - basically everything involved with the ms AFTER it’s done, because I write SLOWLY! Not because the story doesn’t flow or I spend ages planning/plotting but because holding down a full-time job and family means very little time to write.

I had to learn the hard way not to push myself to write all the time when I started getting major headaches in 2008/2009.

Once the ms is done though, I love tinkering with it. One editor mentioned how fast I was with editing when I returned a major rewrite three days later! I just wish Harl would hurry up and send me some already! ;)

By: Maisey

Maisey — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:11:24 +0000

I used to hate editing. Getting the first draft down is fun, and fast and fresh, but fixing it? Gah. If I knew how to fix it I just would have done it that way in the first place!!

But, then I started to love editing, and here's how..."Maisey, real world, real world, this is Maisey, be nice to her."

Edits are a fact of the biz. Writing is revisions and all that. And now that I've seen what edits, revisions and even rewrites can do to an MS, I find I love them.

By: Rachael Johns

Rachael Johns — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:06:02 +0000

I’m like Janette – a love/hate relationship. If we’re talking polishing and tweaks I LOVE editing! But if we’re talking massive rewrites – then NO THANKS!

Great to hear you’re happy with your story! I’m still wasting too much time thinking about a new idea when I don’t even need one yet. Just blogged about it – lol!

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:22:37 +0000

Yeah, I write fast too. But then I edit slower. And it can take more than a few edits for me to be happy with the mss. It can take a while to draw a nice border around each page you see. 😉

By: Janette Radevski

Janette Radevski — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:18:36 +0000

Sigh. I have a love hate relationship with editing (actually I have a love hate realtionship with everything these days). I find that I write fast, but edit sloooooooowwwly. Very sloooowly.

Oh - I'm a boaderer too. big time.