Editing: Yes, It's Hard

This article was originally written for Fairfield County Writers, now Full Coverage Writers.

So you're ready to edit, are you? Are you sure? Have you let your manuscript sit a bit? Have you written something else? Are you sure you've let your ardor for this work cool?

Great. Go for it. Start editing--if you know how. (Cue danger theme.)

Anyone can tell you to "get rid of all the adverbs." You also need to "declare war on passive voice." And don't forget "interrogate every exclamation point!" There's a caveat here, of course--in writing, no rules should be followed absolutely. For the sake of your sanity and your story, don't set your search function to seek and destroy every -ly word in your manuscript, and recognize that passive voice has its place.

Which leaves you back where you started, not knowing where to start.

I've noticed it's not easy to find in-depth advice on editing. Some exists--Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision Method is excellent, for instance, but overwhelming to most writers. I know I never could have done it that first time had I not tried it on vacation, with an understanding roommate who could and would cook and clean while I buried myself in red-stained paper. James Scott Bell wrote "Revision and Self-Editing," and it's full of good advice. Beyond that, though--anyone can tell you what you need to do. Ask how, though, and watch them shuffle.

It's not all that surprising. Editing is even more a personal process than writing is. We all have to find our own way. As with writing, though, it doesn't hurt to try on others' methods.

Astonishing as it may be, Holly Lisle's One-Pass works for me, almost without adaptation. I like her system, and I recommend it if you can bring yourself to try. I'll warn that I've done it a couple times now, and I haven't managed yet to get a book from First Draft to Ready in one pass. I can, however, manage a remarkable improvement, adding thirty-thousand words and a truckload of coherency in two frantic weeks.

If that sounds fun to you, I'd like you to call the boys in white coats--no, I mean, search online for "Holly Lisle One-Pass Revision" and join me on the crazy train.

If One-Pass sounds more like a nightmare to you than a dream vacation, relax. It's my way, but it's not the One True Way. Other methods exist. One of these might strike a chord for you.

I've known writers who start with a read-through. They want to familiarize themselves with the work again, taking notes as they go, before they change anything. Others do a rolling edit, fixing as they go. In my experience this leads to a narrow focus--fixing the grammar while the structure sinks in flames--but it might work better for you.

One friend does One-Pass in stages. She'll start with a focus on her characters, making sure everything they are doing is in character and makes sense from their point of view--that nothing happens because The Writer wants it to happen. This will lead her to the structural issues and plot and subplots, and she'll take some time on that. She might go through again to add in and buff up description, and then again for dialogue, and a final round for polish.

An aside--if there's one rule you've probably heard above any other, it's the hoary old "show, don't tell!" This is another that can be broken at need. Just be sure you know what you're doing, and why, and summarize as necessary.

Another friend does all the cutting before she does any fixing. She's a fiend with a red pen, and her most recent manuscript lost about 60% of its initial words before she got to writing again. I don't know how this works, to be honest. No clue. But it does, for her.

Holly Lisle and others swear you have to print your story out to edit it properly, but I have a friend who just can't work that way. The pile of paper is not something she's prepared to deal with. Her editing is onscreen.

As with so many things, try out different methods. Find what works for you. Be aware that you will almost certainly flail about when you start. I still do. Every time. Some writers flail the whole way through. Keep your wits about you, try to breathe once in a while, and have a good friend on speed dial to talk you down as needed.

You can do this.