The Editing Process

[malenkayacherepakha]

Editing my own works isn't something I do very well - I read things over of course and make the odd minor change, but I've never done a proper critical edit of my fic. I want to improve my writing though, and I've got a couple of fics in the pipeline that I hope have the potential to be really good, and good editing is going to help a lot with that.

So, I thought I'd see what wisdom all the brilliant writers on here have to share!
What do you look for when you edit (or beta!)?
How does your editing process (or beta process) work?

Any thoughts are massively appreciated!

Comments

[icarusinflight]

What I look for in my own editing vs someone else's is majorly different. After my first draft I will really kind of rewrite my fics quite a bit. I find I put on about 20% WC wise in the editing process? One of the things I have found really helpful is that when I am doing it I actually use track changes in my own work, which sounds silly, but gives me a mental distance that is helpful. It can be annoying to have to then go back through and accept the changes, but it only really gets annoying on very long fics (Erised I see you). It's also helpful if I am not sure about a change I am making.

I've actually come to really love the self-edit process which surprises me. Still put it off every time though hahaha

[malenkayacherepakha]

That's really interesting, my fics tend to stay pretty similar between first draft and posting, but that's part of the reason why I feel like I could do better with editing!

I like the idea of tracking changes - I guess it can maybe make it feel a bit more like betaing someone else's work and it sounds very useful for changes you aren't quite sure about. I'm going to try it!

I love betaing for other people so I hope I can grow to like doing it for myself too.