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

[pauraque]

For me the most important thing is getting some distance before I try to self-edit. After finishing a draft, I try to give it at least a few days of not looking at or thinking about the fic at all, and then go back to it. (Longer would probably be even better, but those pesky deadlines...) The better I can simulate the experience of reading it for the first time, the more likely it is I'll catch mistakes or confusing aspects, and be less biased by my own knowledge of what I meant when I was writing.

As for what I look for, besides overt mistakes, I focus a lot on flow and pacing. I find it hard to get pacing right on the first draft. A paragraph that took me 15 minutes to write might only take 15 seconds to read, so I may have assumed that the fic spent enough time on some point when it really didn't. I look for areas where there should be a slow buildup or a sudden surprise, and make sure they actually read that way to someone who doesn't know what's supposed to happen.

I also do a lot of fiddling with the wording and structure of sentences and paragraphs, making sure I'm not reusing the same words too often or using awkward phrases that trip me up when I try to read them. (Reading out loud can help highlight these.) Then, if I've changed some section significantly, I go back to the beginning of the fic/scene and read it over for pacing again. I usually go through this process several times until I'm hardly changing anything on each read-through, and that's when I consider it done enough to go to beta.

But I think what you should look for in your editing process depends on what you think your own weaknesses are. If you know what you struggle with, you can be more effective at fixing it. (For example, I have a terrible habit of overusing semicolons and em-dashes, so during editing I look for them and take a lot out. But this isn't a problem everybody has!) When you look at your own older fics, what sorts of things stand out to you as things you could have done better? What kinds of advice and corrections do your beta-readers give you over and over?

The biggest thing that's made me better at self-editing is truly taking in the things my beta-readers have said, and generalizing them. Okay, I put too much detail in this one paragraph of this one fic, and now I fixed it... But maybe I want to keep that in the back of my mind for the next fic, and ask myself if I'm doing it again. What would my beta say about this paragraph? After a while, you can practically put your beta out of a job because you're catching all the things they would catch. (Though it's always still a good idea to use one, I think -- another set of eyes never stops being useful.)

[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.

[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

[paulamcg]

Compared with pauraque’s excellent contribution above, I can now think of only a few superficial points. I write in a probably unusual manner, editing my text constantly, at least after each paragraph, and often reading from the beginning of the scene or from the very beginning. However, I agree that distance is important, and I prefer leaving the completed story for a few days before going over it all once, and only after that sending it to my beta, and when revising old fics, it’s a pleasure to see more clearly how the text can be improved.

I’ve noticed that when there’s not much distance in time, it helps to read the text in a form where the line breaks are different (like when I’ve pasted the uncompleted fic in a private post so as to read it at LJ or DW on my phone). That somehow helps me see the text as new and spot at least typos and also repetition.

(Remembering what my beta had to point out once) I check in particular that in the opening (of a scene) I give all the information a reader needs so as not to get any false ideas about where and when the story is set.

Like pauraque I’ve got the habit of reading my text aloud – listening and checking that it sounds fluent. However, it’s a bit disconcerting to know that a lot of readers only glance at each line or even take in a whole paragraph at one glance. Because I always both read and write slowly, I guess I need a beta to also check that the text works for that kind of reading, too.

(EDITED Oh, other excellent contributions have appeared while I was writing mine slowly!)

[magpie_fngrl]

As a pantser, I'm big on editing and revision. The main thing I do is rereads. I edit as I go along, so I'll read from the top, making corrections here and there; when I get to a point that needs heavy revising, I'll do that, then I might reread from the top again to ensure it all works. Pacing is hard to judge for everyone; for me, my guide is my reread: I try to be alert to the tiniest feeling of boredom; it usually means I need to revise/tighten something.

I'm also a huge cutter. One of the most edifying exercises I've done is one where I had to cut my writing by x per cent (I can't remember now the exact percentage, not that it matters much). That might mean finding 200 words to remove in a 2k fic, which seems impossible at first, but it's not. During my editing, I'll cut all the "just" I keep writing, all the dialogue tags that aren't necessary. Another thing to do about prose is to search your doc for a word you know you're using a lot, say "looked". If you're me, you might end up with 100 instances in a short fic, where apparently every one looks at each other and nothing else LOL. Do it for words like "realised" (most times words like that can be cut), "really", "very" and any other filter words that give you nothing.

Reading aloud is a fantastic way to ensure flow. When you catch yourself stumbling over a sentence, it needs rewriting.

Writing well depends on reading well; what we read is what we write. I can usually tell by the first paragraph if a writer is experienced, and I can always tell if a writer has been reading only fanfic. This isn't about editing a specific story, more to learn about storytelling which will help you know what to look for when you edit: Find a few stories that make you think "this is the kind of writing I want to do, the kind that speaks to me" and read them closely. Study those works. If there's one piece of advice out of this long-ass comment I'm writing that I'd urge you to take, it's this: take the best writing you can find and break it open. Consider questions such as: what kind of obstacles does the author set before the HEA? How do they reach the resolution? How do they start a story? What do they leave out? What is my fave moment in that story, and how tf did they manage to leave me shaking on the floor? I've learned more from reading Captive Prince than from several MOOCs I took.

Distance and time is the best, although not always feasible. But even a few days suffice.

Final suggestion: def find a good beta. Find a friend who's a decent writer themselves and/or an ardent reader (of books, not just fic) and exchange beta services. You'll learn loads from doing beta, too. Also, you can ask questions such as: what didn't you like? What would you cut? Or things like: "would X character behave this way here?"

[gracerene]

Agreed on a lot of what others have said here. I actually don't edit as I go at all, the one exception being if I've taken a long break from writing a longer fic, then I'll usually reread/edit what I've started with to find my voice again, otherwise, I write everything, or most everything out, and then go back and edit. For me, it's a lot of trusting my gut/instincts. If there is a section/sentence that is reading weirdly, if I feel like a characterization isn't quite coming through, etc. I'm probably right. Very often the things I've felt wibbly on but didn't feel like dealing with so hoped they were good enough were things my betas ended up pointing out.

For me, the biggest thing is finding people to look over my work. If it's longer than a one-shot, I'd like at least two, preferably three eyes on it. These should be people who you click with, who give the kind of feedback you're looking for. For me, that means squee included in the feedback, but also more than just squee and basic SpaG. Like magpie said, I find people who are good writers themselves and/or voracious readers (of more than just fanfic) make better betas, but not everybody is cut out for giving helpful feedback.

I'd also say, don't be so tied to anything that you're unwilling to part with it/cut it/change it if it's better for the story. There have been a number of times I've had to cut down or completely eliminate/change scenes/conversations etc that I loved and had put a lot of time into writing because they weren't working for the story. One thing I see a lot of with longer fics is a lot of unnecessary scenes that don't actually push the story forward, and it ends up really dragging down the pacing. You might love a particular conversation, but if it's not serving the central narrative, it might be better off being cut. And you can always rework them into little bonus scenes/codas if you really can't part with them. :D

[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!

[lightofdaye]

This is an interesting topic. I'll have to read through the responses myself because I am rubbish at edit, owing to combination of only writing short things and only writing right before or after a deadline.

[necessarian]

To be honest, I don't do a lot of editing on my fics, but I've played around a lot with editing original fiction so I reckon this advice can carry over to fic easily. The number one thing I look for on an edit is continuity. I find that keeping a separate document for the timeline is helpful, but also making bullet point list of important moments and threads of information, and noting down stuff as you reread. It's good to keep track of where you disclose certain information, whether it be about character or plot, to make sure you don't do anything twice, or in the wrong order, or miss something out entirely. This really helps with internal consistency, and streamlining the narrative!

For word-level edits, my best friend is CTRL+F. I like to reread and, if I find a good phrase, I CTRL+F it to make sure I haven't gone mad with power and repeated it. Other things to CTRL+F are filler words, and any other words you know you tend to overuse that are in danger of making the prose clunky and repetitive. Or if you find a nice, unusual word, search for that too to make sure you've used it sparingly, for impact.

If you want to bring out the big guns, nothing helps me quite like printing it out and going through with a brightly coloured ballpoint pen. It just changes my mindset somehow, to see it in print, and the act of editing by hand helps with physically internalising changes. This is not great for continuity edits, since you can't search/cross-reference easily, but it's really good for sentence- or paragraph-level edits. Moving stuff around, crossing stuff out, and rewriting sentences is a really visceral process that always leaves me with a stronger story afterwards. If you don't have access to a printer (I don't right now, stuck at home!) then changing the font is a really good alternative. Just forcing yourself to look at something as though it's new.

If in doubt, just keep rereading. New stuff will jump out at you every single time. Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop tbh - I come back to things I wrote months or years ago and keep tweaking. The only thing I can do to get myself to stop playing around with something is to post it haha