Comments on: ‘Making changes’… uh, no… ‘editing’… umm, ‘revising’…

By: Laura Reeve

Laura Reeve — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:37:26 +0000

Funny — I’m two days away from sending my second book to my editor for its first pass-through (tentatively called VIGILANTE, but since my first novel was renamed I don’t know if this title will stick).

I learned that I, too, will edit copy forever if I’m given the chance. So I try to make a process for each draft, similar to Simon, where I work my way linearly through both hard copy and soft copy. Going from beginning to end, I’m done with draft #N when I get to the end. Unfortunately, I’m not as fast as Simon and I generally average only 3 - 4 full mss revisions before I have to turn it in to the editor, which means I’m DONE.

However, I can tell when scenes are beginning to click and the story is holding together. If I get carried away with my own story, start reading like a reader, and forget that I’m supposed to be editing — that’s a good thing.

By: Simon Haynes

Simon Haynes — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:17:28 +0000

I work my way through 15-20 printed drafts of each novel (I know this is so, because the 2-foot stack of printouts for my latest is an armslength from where I’m sitting now.)

I force myself to edit with a red pen, then enter all the changes, then print again, then edit, etc. In the later drafts I put the pen down alongside me, and I only allow myself to pick it up for those must-do changes.

I can track most changes & revisions in my head (probably why I have trouble remembering everything in Real Life nowadays), which prevents me toggling the same changes back and forth in subsequent drafts.

By: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diana Pharaoh Francis — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:44:39 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. I think I get to the point of being done when I’m no longer sure the changes I’m making benefit the story. It’s a very specific feeling I get and while I know it might be, and while I know if I keep looking I can probably find more stuff to change that would help, I also know that in doing so I’ll change some things for the worse. So then I know that it needs an editorial eye, and then when it comes back for revisions, I go through the same process where I come at it fresh, make changes, and then reach the point again where I’m no longer sure. Then it has to be done. But by then, I feel pretty confident that it’s largely a good manuscript, and my editor will tell me if not.

By: Karen Wester Newton

Karen Wester Newton — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:25:53 +0000

To continue in the fine arts vein, I compare writing when you’re not published to oil painting, where you can take your time, start over if you like (scrape that paint right off the canvas), even put it aside and think about it for a while.

Once you have a contract for the next book, writing becomes more like water colors. You have to work quickly and you have to know when to stop, or you can ruin a perfectly good picture.

I’m still working in oil myself, but I hope to work up to water colors soon.

By: Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:07:04 +0000

I have an ongoing cost/benefit analysis in my head. It says, “sure, I could make this x amount better by investing y amount of work, but…” At some point the x-y graph hits a slope that my back brain says is counterproductive and I send it out. Whether it’s inherent laziness or some sort of survival reflex that’s rewired itself to the writing process or a learned skill, I don’t know. I just know that at some point the back brain says, “Done Now,” and refuses to let the fore brain invest any more resources.