On Editing: Part 2

I wasn't happy with the previous post on editing. 1) It was long-winded. 2) It came to my attention that the example I'd used didn't make much sense, which is fine, considering it's still in the early writing stage. But still, it shows that writers are often too close to their own work and it annoyed me that I didn't catch it.

I hope to rectify both of the above issues with this post.

So, let's take a look at how we can edit the new opening paragraph (two now actually) so that it's tighter:

Self-loathing. Robert knew all about thatself-loathing.

He stood by his car, parked outside the village cafe (Quick Fix), and viewed his new home. A manor which loomed in the distance, a relic from last century, with its back againsto the sea. It had only just sunk inHe'd only just realised that he owned the entire Pendleton Estate. And the manor was just what he needed. He could hide there from civilisation without risk of being disturbed and write.

That is a few words tighter. It makes sense. It's not perfect, probably. For starters, while it's tighter, I'm not sure I want to take out the 'Self-loathing' sentence fragment. I probably will, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

Anyway, let's take an example from a polished work now, which are two sentences from To Take A Life, which'll be published in the short story compilation when it's done (though I'll be having it edited by someone else before it's published, so there might be differences in the final version):

And then you find yourself wonderingquestioning if God existedthere was a god. If He didexisted, why would He let her die?

There wasn't really anything wrong with the previous version before I edited it. However, I realised I could say the same thing with less words without losing my style. That is why I made the changes.

Style is important, by the way. Never cut so much that your style is lost. It's a balancing act between cutting and trying to decide what should be more wordy for style reasons. Like, you might just be a more wordy writer than me. Lord of the Rings probably wouldn't have achieved the acclaim it has done if Tolkien had been told to cut down on wordiness. His books aren't for me, but that doesn't make them bad or him a bad writer.

For instance, if I may quote a certain passage from Lord of the Rings, chosen at random:

'For some time he had sat silent beside Bilbo's empty chair, and ignored all remarks and questions.'

Now, if I were to rework it:

'For some time, he had sat silentbeside Bilbo's empty chair, and kept to himselfignored all remarks and questions.'

Or:

'For some time, he had sat silentbeside Bilbo's empty chair, and ignored everything and everyone.' (Bit more clunky actually, in my view, with the two ands, but it's tighter.)

Or:

'For some time, he had sat silent beside Bilbo's empty chair, and kept to himselfignored all remarks and questions.'

However, while those three passages are tighter after being changed to how I'd write them, would you agree that there's a distinct difference in style there? What makes Tolkien Tolkien is gone.

And some people love him because of his writing style. Some people love him because of his world, stories and characters.

If the writing was made as tight as possible, it wouldn't be the same book. And it'd be like it was written by a different writer.

Again, I will reiterate that it's very important to develop your own style (whether for individual works or your work as a whole) and to not feel like you need to conform and always keep everything as tight as possible. The beauty of writing is the vast anount of different writing styles, language use and stories out there. If we were to all conform and keep our writing as tight as possible, then we may as well all write the same way.

What matters is keeping things as tight as possible while 'working within the confines of your own style' so that your style/voice is maintained. And this, to me, alongside editing to make sure everything is clear and reads well, is the most important part of editing. You can over-edit and basically lose any semblance of the unique style you have.

(And this was still long-winded. I'm trying to get the hang of blog posting, but at least the examples made sense this time.)

On Editing

I'm still very much working on the short story compilation currently, but it's fell to the wayside recently as I've been focusing on a horror story (with some mystery elements at first that eventually give way to the horror elements), called The Manor.

I'll be dedicating another blog post to talking about it, but for now, I want to touch on editing.

Some people hate it. Not me.

Why do people hate it?

It's probably because they view it as work and think they're murdering their darlings that they've slaved over for months. I can see why people would think they're murdering their darlings. Scenes being cut, lots of words lost etc.

Before I actually touch on editing though, I want to say why I don't dislike editing my own work. When I do a rough draft, it's not in a nearly unreadable state. The content is mostly fine as well and I don't plan beforehand. With this in mind, what I need to edit for is grammar, tightening, readability and spelling. Writing the rough draft is where I feel it's actual work, albeit very enjoyable work. (Granted, I'm a short story writer, as I don't pad things out and it means a novel may be difficult for me. But so far, The Manor is a longer story and not much different to edit, though I've had to make minor content changes. And to give an idea on how short my writing is, I'm on chapter 4 with 2,927 words written.)

So, why is the editing process a necessary 'evil'?

For a lot of writers, their first draft is wordy and their content is possibly poor. Also, it's possibly badly written in terms of grammar and spelling.

With the rough, first draft, you're creating the story. You're getting the basics down, albeit in an unrefined form. It is only with redrafting and editing that you begin to refine the piece and turn it into something that people would want to read.

Let me show you a few examples of the first two paragraphs in The Manor:

(straight from my head, non-edited) The manor, partly obscured by rolling fog, housed on a hill towered above the village. Abandoned for over a century, it stood a relic of ages past. And looking at it just outside the village pub, it hit Robert that it was all his now. A place to call home, especially when writing, using his trusty old typewriter. He was old fashioned like that. Then there was the all important solitude the place would offer him. A place where he could wallow in self-loathing, without risk of being disturbed.

He locked his car, heard the confirming beep and headed inside the pub. It was relatively quiet inside, with just the odd customer lounging about with the staff either seeming like they’d kill to have something to do or just chatting amongst themselves. (132 words.)

(edited)
Robert could see the manor, situated on a hill and with the sea behind it, from the village cafe. Abandoned for over a century, it stood a relic. He only just realised that it was all his now. A place to call home, especially when writing. Then there was the all important solitude the place would offer him, so that he could wallow in self-loathing, without risk of being disturbed.

He locked his car, heard the confirming beep and headed inside the cafe. It was relatively quiet, with few customers lounging about and the few staff largely idle. (99 words)

(now for the fun part, how it actually looks in my word doc currently) Robert could see Tthe manor, situated on a hill and with the sea behind it partly obscured by rolling fog, housed on a hill from the village cafetowered above the village. Abandoned for over a century, it stood a relic of ages past. And looking at it outside the villagepub, Quick Fix, it hit Robert He only just realised that the manorit was all his now. A place to call home, especially when writing, using his trusty old typewriter. He was old fashioned like that. Then there was the all important solitude the place would offer him., so thatA place where he could wallow in self-loathing, without risk of being disturbed.

He locked his car, heard the confirming beep and headed inside the cafepub. It was relatively quiet inside, with fewjust the odd customers lounging about and the few staff largely idleabout with the staff either seeming like they'd kill to have something to do or just chatting amongst themselves.

(End of examples)

I hope this helps in showing how you might go about editing your own work. Outside of content editing, much of it is to do with tightening and improving your work's readability, alongside making it come alive and eliminating repetition.

I'd like to add that I can already see a few places that I can probably further edit in those two paragraphs (I'd like to eliminate one 'few' as an example in the second paragraph if possible and the first paragraph needs to be edited for clarity, I think). So the job is not done yet with those two paragraphs and they'll quite possibly need several more revisions.

It's a process that is continually repeated until you say 'enough is enough' and 'I have to let it go'. Ultimately, always keep in mind that your writing will never be absolutely 100% perfect before self-publishing or sending it off to an agent/publisher. The only thing you can do is get it in the best shape possible before you decide to take the plunge and self-publish or send it off. In addition, despite what some people may think, an editor would unlikely be able to make something absolutely perfect either. Why? Because there is so much subjectivity involved, even where language is concerned. Like, I may want a comma somewhere and someone else may disagree. How many times have you picked up a book and ignored or added in commas, as an example?

Finally, while it's the opposite of what I do, a piece of advice is to resist the urge to go back and edit things. Wait until you've finished your rough version. I can get away with doing it because it doesn't take me long to make edits and it's not like I'm rewriting entire scenes. So, even though I do the occasional edit, I'm still making quite good progress in terms of furthering the story.