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

[james]

What I find works for me (hi wandering in through Network), is looking at the story in a different format -- even just a different font or opening it in a different program to change how the words are spread out on the screen. If you can print it out, that's also good -- forcing your brain to interact with it as if it weren't the same thing you've been staring at while writing is the key. Some people like to read a story out loud (but for me I tune out and don't really listen to myself sating words, but it can be a good way to notice if you left something important out or got redundant or something.)

I had the fortune to work with very good editors back in the 90s, and their little red marks taught me how to self-edit. You might take a look at some of the previous fannish auctions and see who offered up editing services -- maybe you can negotiate getting a short, older work done so you can see what sort of things they'd suggest changing.

[malenkayacherepakha]

Hi!

That's a really good idea - I'll have to see if our printer has any ink, but if not a different font is a good idea. It's definitely really easy to just kind of read what you want to read when it's in the same format, rather than actually reading what's on the page. I've done the reading outloud thing before, especially when I wrote essays at uni, and it seems to work alright for me, so I'll try that too.

That's a good thought - I am keen to get more critical beta work done on my fics as I'm sure it will help me get better at self-editing.