Tuesday Tips: Editing fics

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Tips and thoughts - and please share yours. Do you enjoy editing your fics?


Hey! Am keeping the Tuesday Tip short this week, partly because the only writing device I have handy requires 'hunt and peck' typing and it is driving me bonkers.

Anyhow, thought I'd share a thought and some links on editing fics.

A quote attributed to Stephen King says your second draft should equal your first draft minus ten percent. I've trimmed as much as 500 words from a 2,500 word story. In other cases I find I have little trimming to do.

Some find editing a chore. I enjoy it about 85% as much as the actual story composition process. Sometimes I wait until a fic is done to edit, but I'm far more likely to edit as I go along-- I.e. write about 500 -1,000 words and then rework them all, then repeat.

Editing is, for me, mostly about making a fic less wordy and looking for places where the dialogue needs to flow better or be made more in character. I'll still look back later and see where I could have done better-- but it helps.

What's your self-editing process? Have any tips? Would love to hear them.


editing fiction

Tips for self-editing

why I'm not going to read your fan fiction (didn't agree with all of this article, but enjoyed it and it made some good points)

Comments

[the-physicist.livejournal.com]

It depends! I don't mind editing if I'm just focusing on how to make things sound a bit better. If I put pressure on for it to sound amazing though... bah. I also don't like editing for content actually. XD

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's interesting how differently we all see the same task.

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the tips.

I edit both while I am an writing, and after the story is done. Take a brake. Then I read it again, out loud, to look for comma errors and if the dialog flows. THEN, I send it off to my beta, so she can point out all the places I didn't catch the commas and still missed a their instead of a there.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

I need to do that one additional read through more often myself. After a break, as you point out. I too often post right after I've finished with no break at all.

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

Yep unless I am up against a dead line or it's just a quick drabble, I find looking at it even after a few hours helps so much.

[amaryllisssa.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to edit more. I edit all my work writing, and then get someone else to do it too usually ... I think I can take stuff I've learnt from there and apply it to make my fan fic better too. Loved the Anne Bowles and 'why I'm not...' articles, for very different reasons!

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked the links. That's great that you carry what you learn forward. I find I fall into the same habits-- so I very often need to do the same kind of cleanup I did the story before!

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Good god, I just read that King quote last night, how funny. I'm re-reading some stuff on editing because I need to quickly edit something and I haven't done it in awhile. I kind of hate it. I find it extremely difficult. I usually don't have enough time to do a good job because I'm a big procrastinator.

I haven't seen those links - thanks!

Chuck Wendig has some great editing tips somewhere on his blog, which I recommend in general for writing inspiration and guidance. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/

As far as process, I go the dirty rough draft route because otherwise it's hard for me to finish. I used to edit as I went, but for me, it's inhibiting. Now I finish the story, then edit. A lot, if possible. Then I get a beta for longer things. One time I did the exercise of taking out all adjectives and adverbs, and boy, that was interesting.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Wow-- interesting idea, cutting out all adjectives and adverbs. I try to use them sparingly but had never thought about trying to work around them entirely. I might give that a try!