(2/?) How do you like to edit your works? Chapter by chapter, scene by scene, entire work by entire work? Is it all on the computer, or do you print it out and red-pen it up? Do you let other people beta-read, or is it just you aiming for perfection?

(¾) Sorry if that’s so much, and you don’t have to answer, but the editing process is one that has been a serious struggle for me, and one that most authors seem kind of secretive about… But your works are a joy to read and a great inspiration, 

(4/4) that I would be foolish not to ask to pick your brain a little. In the meantime, thank you so much for everything you’ve done and written! I hope things are going well for you, your dwarfling is healthy, and your muse never fails! ♡

Hey Nonnie!

Awerhwlkejhfglsjhdfs honestly!! *fans face* that is super nice of you to say, thank you SO much, aaaaah

I think that is a wonderful dream. Go for it, with all your heart and all my love and encouragement. 

Okay, well, bear in mind that this is all very subjective!

I do edit A LOT. I am constantly editing, frankly. There is a little bit of everything: sometimes a sentence or a single line of dialogue needs revising, and sometimes a whole scene needs re-writing. It’s not that it is BAD, per se, it is just that perhaps it isn’t adding anything. Or perhaps it is just clumsy, and so rewriting it will refine and distil it.

I do try to “zoom out” on occasion and look at the work as a whole, trying to find the weakest sections. I know I am not impartial when it comes to this, so it can sometimes be a challenge. I feel this is probably my weakest editing skill. 

My strongest editing skill is most likely polishing scene by scene. It is sort of like music to me, or art, in that every scene has a sort of… shape, like a flow or a contour. I often think of the shapes of musical phrases, or like, musical structures, for instance. I build them up, remove the ones that interrupt the pace and the flow, re-write the ones that feel like they don’t belong. To me, every scene has to have a point to it, even a short scene. It has to have a reason. Otherwise why are we looking at it? So everything has to fit that shape, that contour. If it deviates, it has to have a REASON to do so. So, if a scene is a slow-building tension before a fight between two friends, and then there is a joke of some sort? That joke diffuses the tension. Why? For me, it would be in order to begin building it again, even higher than before. The joke gives the reader a moment to breathe and relax after all that tension – and then I can ramp it up even more, because the breather means that they have the stamina to come with me.

When editing and re-reading, if I can’t point to a scene and say: “the reason for this scene is [character development/plot advancement/relationship development],” then it doesn’t have a point, and it is time to go back to the drawing board.

I don’t really have a beta-reader. Sometimes one or two friends will be kind enough to look over a draft for me, to check for mood and pacing and stuff – and to reassure me that it isn’t a steaming pile of donkey-doo! But mostly it is me chipping away at it on my own. That’s okay, though: I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do this bit. As long as it is edited.

I don’t print it and red-pen. I do a LOT of highlighting on the word document, and I keep a notebook by the computer for ideas, character tidbits, snippets of dialogue that might get orphaned, etc. 

I do read scenes aloud on occasion, to see if it builds properly, if the shape of it is as I hope it is. I also try reading the dialogue alone, without the description/exposition that may now and then happen between lines of dialogue, to hear whether it works as a play would. (Playwriting is honestly an amazing way of learning to condense a LOT of meaning into dialogue ALONE. Reading and performing plays has made me a better writer, I stg.)

Sometimes I look at timing in my scenes or in a chapter, and go URGH. That is when I start to think, “all right – break it down into CAMERA SHOTS.” This helps find the pace of it. For instance, I am not intimidated by battle scenes, because I control the camera. I can remove half the ‘takes’ later on, if they’re not helping. But just having them to begin with will give my battle-scene more space and more life and fullness, rather than simply describing blow after blow after blow.

I edit as I write. I edit after I’ve written two sentences. I edit after I’ve written a paragraph. I edit after I’ve written a whole scene. I edit after I’ve written a chapter. I edit after I’ve posted a chapter. I edit a previous chapter after I’ve tweaked the last one I posted. I edit like a madwoman. 

Very often, the editing starts the words coming out again in a faster current, and I have the impetus/inspiration to add a bit more to the end of the work. And off I go again, editing furiously 🙂

This strategy might not help you, though. Some folks do better to write while the words are coming, and edit when they’re finished. No way is right, no way is wrong!