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

[magpie_fngrl]

I agree with everything Grace has said 247%. I've had it happen so many times too; betas always end up pointing out what I wasn't sure of, something that made me pause too. Never in my life has anyone pointed out to something I thought I'd done brilliantly and disagreed. Analysing your work (and others) and self-editing is also about honing that instinct.

Also, HARD same on fics being full of scenes that drag the pacing. Few 100k fics I've read deserved to be that length. Which is also why when you analyse fave works to see how they work, you should also (if not mainly) do it for pubbed books: they've been professionally edited.

[malenkayacherepakha]

Do you flag those bits to your betas or just wait and see if they pick them up without any prompting?

Looks like I'll have to set aside plenty of time for reading in the next few months - what a shame!

[magpie_fngrl]

No, I don't flag them.