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Post by lmsands on Jul 13, 2014 11:14:28 GMT -8
Do you pay a professional editor? And, even if you do, what is your own personal editing process? I'm in the process of completing my first fiction novel and realizing how much more difficult editing is than the actual writing. I've published non-fiction before, but never have I written over 100,000 words that could probably be trimmed down to...hmm...60,000?!  |
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lbrw
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Post by lbrw on Jul 13, 2014 13:15:29 GMT -8
I'm not a classically trained writer.
I write because I must. Always have.
What I never realized was that there are writers who think of writing and editing as separate processes.
It wasn't until I started going online that I saw writers complaining about editing and saying that they were paying for editing.
I was shocked.
They also liked to argue that in order to write quality it had to be slow. As though it was impossible for someone (me) to write fast and still produce quality work.
I found book by a gal who increased her word count from "2,000 to 10,000 words" (by Rachel Aaron) and when I read her process, she described editing as simply writing. I had felt this way, too. I stopped listening to naysayers.
Not everyone can write fast. but writers need to hear that whatever speed they write at is perfect as long as YOU are happy with it.
As I write, I self edit. It comes naturally. It's not something someone taught me. I just do it. I spell check as I go along.
When I finish, I read for grammar, consistency, pacing and continuity.
There certainly are professionals who do this, but if those services are not in your budget writers are performing those tasks all the time.
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Post by kipenci on Jul 14, 2014 4:39:37 GMT -8
I edit myself as well. While I understand that one can easily miss mistakes in his or her own writing, I can't imagine an independent writer paying for that service. Get a friend to do you a favor or something.
The editing process is ingrained in the writing process for me. I write a short bit of the general action and dialogue in a skeletal form, then flesh out with descriptions and check for writing quality before continuing. For my longer stories, I often have to go back to the beginning plug in details so that later events make sense. Or, I may decide to go in a different direction.
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lbrw
New Member
Posts: 32
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Post by lbrw on Jul 14, 2014 7:44:16 GMT -8
I write exactly the same way! I recently learned that this is called the Snowflake Method and there's a guy who wrote a book about it and everything. I had no idea. Lol  |
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Post by kipenci on Jul 20, 2014 6:50:05 GMT -8
Cool! I didn't know that there was a name for it.
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