The Chopping Board

[Neurolanis]

OK, I am still typing off my book from the longhand rough draft, but during which I have begun editing (as I go.) I am beginning to wonder what to chop, and what not to chop. When I read over everything I see the logic in almost everything I wrote and would hate to chop, yet, some clumsy moments and unimportant paragraphs and repeated information is just begging to be snipped. Hmmm ... I'll be careful with this of course, but this will make me a very thoughtful chopper for a while.

Any thoughts or ideas with the editing process of professional writing?

[aldan]

I would say that your best bet would be to NOT chop on your first type-up. Instead, just get it all down in an easily-readable format, and then once done, take it to someone you might know that you think would be able to read it and give you good feedback. Then, after reading the feedback/listening to it, you should THEN make notes about it all and then ask a second person to read it. Once they're done and you've heard the feedback from them, then make some decisions about how to fix parts that were not understood by either of them, and that might not be strong enough to keep. These will likely require a guillotine. However, keep the original draft you'd typed so that when you have finished cutting it, you can then try sending both copies to different publishers to have them look at (don't send them together, and don't send one version you'd already sent to a publisher in the other format). Find out if you get any feedback from THEM about either one. Most often, while they like to see polish, it seems that they also like to have more options when it comes to using the scissors for a first time author, because they know you're still developing a voice and many should like to have the opportunity to help to form a successful relationship with a writer that they helped to grow into that success. This would help to create a long-lasting publishing relationship, at least in my fantasy world it would...

[shadowbooks]

Hey - I agree with aldan - finnish writing and then go through it again. I find if I start to change something major like a character's age, how they look or even their personality, just write in the change because when you go back to revise it you know where the character ends up. As for just editing text, I hate cutting stuff out! So get someone else to point out unneeded passages,

take care

Darren

[Magus]

About changing ages, I gave some parts of my current WIP to a friend to read. It turns out that I mention at one point that the protagonist's sister's three years younger than him, while a page or so later she's four years younger.



But I find, in my own experiences, that as I transcribe from the hand-written story to an electronic format, I add to it rather than take away from it. That's simply my own way of doing things. Some things get edited out, most often consolidated together, but the word count always ends a little higher than when it began.

[eleika]

While I agree that you shouldn't chop anything in the first type-up, sending publishers an unedited rough kind of sounds like you're just asking for rejection. Just my two cents.

[aldan]

Eleika, just to make sure it's understood, I was suggesting that two different versions be sent out, an unCUT (meaning that it hasn't had story stuff chopped) or a CUT version (in which he has gone through and done some preliminary chopping. Thinking about it, though, it'd likely be wiser to get an agent first and see what the agent thinks about this.

The main difficulty with editing your own work when you've never been published is that you just don't really know what the individual publishers are looking for and what they'd prefer to be gone from your drafts. Once published, you can then look over your draft(s) and see was cut and kept, but until then, you probably wouldn't know. Some things are obvious, but Neuro's complaint was that too much wasn't obvious at all. He said that most of what he'd written WAS a strong part of his story as far as HE could tell, and that he couldn't separate himself from it far enough to determine what was and was not deserving of the guillotine....

[Neurolanis]

Thank-you for your comments! I'm actually not chopping so much as I am rewording some sentances at this point.

I understand that, Aldan. Having some else to edit your work or give opinions on it would be great. Hmn. Something to think about I guess..

[aldan]

I know. It seems that you are very much an individualist who doesn't want to have to have others do anything for you. However, in this case, it would likely be for the best for someone(s) to help you in this editing task. Too often we either can't see the forest for the trees or we cannot see any of the dangerous animals therein due to the trees. However, others might be able to locate them to help you remove them from your forest of Eden....

Myself, I'm not as rugged an individualist, as would probably be obvious, but then again, I am single, and pretty strenuously so (at least right now), and don't strive to really enlarge my social ends, because of the pain involved. I don't seek pain. It seeks me, and finds me much too often. What I've been doing is just telling others about the story, but I have not yet SHOWN it to anyone. I cannot and will not until I've reached the point at which many writers type, "The End". THAT is the point at which I'll be starting to find people to read it. I have already chosen one person and will find one or two more. The already-chosen one is a fan of sci-fi/fantasy, but isn't a writer at all. He will be the first, just to use him to find plotholes and give me an idea if I was able to accomplish the main goals I have for the story. I don't know whether or not he'll be very good at expounding on the whole character interaction thing within the story, or other such more in-depth subjects, but that's not why I've asked him to do this.... The second and/or third one will have more experience with the writer shade of pale, and will be able to give me more technical suggestions, or so I hope.

[Magus]

This is the one with the half-elf, right?

[Neurolanis]

I think you would do a wonderful job in the editing process Aldan, and not just because you're fussy about spelling and grammer but because you seem to be something of a perfectionist, or at least that's my take. Still an outside perspective may be very useful. But finding people to edit our work or look it over and give pointers could be a difficult task. Not only in terms who you can trust (and whose perspective can you trust) but also finding someone willing to do it!

And as you seem to realize, the idea of getting someone to edit my work before I send it to an agent doesn't sit well with me. I'm not exactly sure why this is, other than my stubborn individualism which you have pointed out..

[aldan]

It could just be something along the lines of how a new mother acts with her first child after she gets home from the hospital... she doesn't want anyone holding the child, doesn't want anyone else feeding it, changing it or anything else, at least that's what I've seen. Instead, she tries very very hard to hold onto that extreme private and personal closeness she feels with the baby. It could be that you feel at least somewhat that way about your novel. It could be the character(s), the world, the story itself or something else. Perhaps you emotionally don't want to have others take the credit for the success if it succeeds, or the blame if it fails. That would go along with your individualism. *shrugs* Perhaps you just have a bit of trouble with the idea of others seeing your WIP BECAUSE it is a Work In Progress. I'm a bit that way, myself.

Or, as has been said before, it could simply be trust. Most if not all of the people who might read it and give you suggestions have not been published themselves, so their opinions might seem to be shots in the dark to you. That's the reason why I am going with several people to read mine... so that I can then take bits from each person and also so that I can see what things were mentioned by more than one person who read it. However, really you shouldn't worry too much about it until you've finished writing your first draft, IMHO. That way you can become a bit more comfortable with it and it'll also give you more time to think about what you would like to do about this....

[Neurolanis]

I think because it is a WIP, I feel it should be all polished and stuff before it's unveiled to anyone.