Re-visioning aka editing

  • Re-visioning aka editing

    “An editor’s  job is to make you, the author, look good and save you from embarrassing mistakes.” — Unknown source

    Hiring an editor is like looking in a mirror before you leave the house, checking to make sure everything is where it should be and nothing is showing that shouldn’t be showing. — Marlene Cullen

    Editing is like a captain having a good crew to help steer the craft. — Marlene Cullen

    Let’s talk about editing. Or, as I like to think: Re-visioning.

    Some writers love to edit . . . making their writing better and better.

    Other writers loathe to edit . . . finding it tedious and nerve wracking.

    Some writers are in the middle, or elsewhere, on the continuum.

    The best scenario:

    Writers and editors work together as they dovetail their skills and expertise to come up with a product that is ready for publishing.

    It’s a collaborative effort. 

    Editors are totally valuable and necessary to fact-check, spot-check, double-check and to make you, the writer, look good.

    A brief overview of editing.

    The Revision or Critique Writing Group, working with peers, sharing manuscripts, helping one another to produce polished work.

    The Developmental Editor can act as a coach or personal cheerleader and looks for continuity, discrepancies, clarity, and overall story development in terms of character, setting, plot, theme, point of view. Once these areas are addressed, the manuscript is ready for copyediting

    Copy editing involves line-by-line checking for grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting and consistency. A copy editor checks facts; is it likely someone would travel from Mill Valley to Oakland on the Golden Gate Bridge?

    Proofreading involves looking at the manuscript for typos, misspellings, inconsistencies in spellings or capitalizing.

    Editors and proofreaders want authors to look good and their manuscripts to be polished and professional.

    The Write Spot blog has many posts about editing.

      Articles about Editing

    3 Common Fears of Hiring a Freelance Editor by Hannah de Keijzer (on Jane Friedman’s Blog)

    Is It OK to Ask for Before/After Examples from a Freelance Editor? By Hattie Fletcher (also on Jane Friedman’s Blog)

    Jane Friedman’s Blog

    Do You need a developmental editor? By Shirin Yim Leos on The Write Spot Blog

    Doubt is the Devil by Matthew Felix. also on The Write Spot Blog

    The Write Spot Blog

    Best wishes for smooth sailing with your writing and with re-visioning. 

    #justwrite  #iamwriting  #iamawriter

    Marlene C

    , ,

  • Revision and laser eye surgery

    “Revising is like being an optometrist—always asking, ‘Is it better like this? Or like this?’” —George Saunders, quote from “The Alchemy Required to Finish a Novel,” by Grant Faulkner, Writers Digest, Nov-Dec 2021

    “As you work through revisions, you see your story from all angles and you discover things you wouldn’t have ordinarily been able to see. A deep revision can give you the clear vision of laser eye surgery.” —Grant Faulkner

    #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter #creative writing

    Marlene C

    , ,

  • Write hot. Revise Cool.

    “As Ray Bradbury says, don’t rewrite—relive. Your fiction is about creating emotion in the reader, and you can’t do that well without feeling it yourself.” —”The Geyser Approach To Revision,” James Scott Bell, July/August 2011 Writer’s Digest

    Note from Marlene: This is true for memoir writing also.

    “You’ve finished your first draft . . . You’ve written hot. Now you’re ready to revise cool with the help of creative spurts.

    . . . wait at least two weeks before you do a first read-through of a draft. Then, go through it as fast as possible, as if you were a reader, resisting the urge to tweak anything just yet.”

    Good advice for those who can do this. This isn’t my style, but it might be yours.

    I do agree with waiting to revise. Let go of the attachment to your writing, your beautiful writing. Keep your darlings in a separate file if they can’t be used in the writing you are revising. They might be perfect passages for another piece of writing.

    Write hot. Revise cool.

    Marlene C

    ,

  • Revision Is Your Friend. Really.

    Guest Blogger Rachael Herron writes about one of my favorite topics: Revision:

    I’m in the middle of revision of a book, and I’m swimming in the water I love.

    What I adore about revision is this: I know the world. I invented it, after all! When I open the document, I’m right in the middle of something I understand. It’s much easier, for me, to drop in for hours and rest on the page. It’s also easier to come out of, to shake off.

    First drafts remain torture for me. Many writers love first drafts, and I can admit that sometimes, the writing of new words is glorious.

    You surprise yourself with a turn of phrase that you’re pretty sure is genius and has probably never been said before. The plot bends and a tree you wrote about comes to life and points a branched finger in a direction you never saw coming. Inspiration flows, hot and heavy.

    But maybe I’m just more of a down-to-earth gal. I love falling in love, but I love remaining in love more. Give me a passionate kiss before you take the trash out—that’s happiness to me. I like the comfort of What I Know. I like to tuck my feet under the thighs of my manuscript as we cuddle on the couch. I love knowing my manuscript likes the lights on till sleep-time, even though I prefer to read in the dark.

    Revision is both comfortable and exciting, like a sturdy marriage. Oh, I love the word sturdy. It’s prosaic, but it’s so me. My legs are sturdy. My emotions are, too. I love my books to be sturdy enough to lean on.

    And lean on them, I fall into them, really. Revisions are getting in the bed you made out of words and pulling up the covers. Then you roll around, making those words better, cleaner, more focused.

    Revision is when the REALLY big ideas show up. Then you have to move parts around, like those flat puzzle toys you slid pieces around on to make a picture, to make those new ideas fit. You might have to pry out some pieces and manufacture new ones. But then you click one piece left, and another one right, and suddenly, you’re looking at it. The whole picture. Your book.

    Ahhh. I’m reveling.

    Note from Marlene: I love Rachael’s enthusiasm about revision. If you dread revising, here’s a positive way to look at it: It’s an opportunity to look at your writing with new eyes; a prospect to improve your writing; to be sure your writing is clear, concise; to make sure you are saying what you really want to say.

    Best wishes with your revision projects.

    Rachael Herron is the internationally bestselling author of more than two dozen books, including thriller (under R.H. Herron), mainstream fiction, feminist romance, memoir, and nonfiction about writing. She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland, and she teaches writing extension workshops at both UC Berkeley and Stanford. She is a proud member of the NaNoWriMo Writer’s Board.

    Links to other guest posts on The Write Spot Blog by Rachael Herron:

    Keeping the spark alive

    The biggest failure    

    Reviews for Rachael Herron’s books on The Write Spot Blog. Type “Rachael Herron” search box for reviews about her books.

    Marlene C

    , ,