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

[walgesang]

I admit I probably lean on my betas much more than I should to do the heavy lifting for me, but I have made a habit of reading fic aloud to myself to see if it "sounds" right.

A good habit has been to remind myself that it's okay to toss out things that don't seem to be working well or maybe an idea or scene that is better used in a future fic (don't toss it, save it!). I will often write out an entire first draft and make myself not self-edit until later. But as many people have said, sometimes the best editing process is what works for you!

[malenkayacherepakha]

Yeah I think in the past I've relied on my betas to do the vast majority of the editing and I want to change that a bit, particularly when I'm working with betas who are less comfortable giving criticism etc. I'm definitely going to put the reading aloud idea into practice.

I need to get a bit more ruthless with getting rid of stuff that doesn't work, and yes totally agree with saving it for another time!

100%, I'm gearing myself up to try out all of the wonderful suggestions in this thread until I find the process that works best for me.