writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

Where in I waste precious cleaning time (and realizing i can't find my cell phone charger). I guess the topic for this week is something else i SHOULD be doing. Editing.

Wow, there's something I don't know a single writer to like but yet we all have to do it. SOmetimes it's not that hard. You see a scene and say to yourself: talking heads, needs description or OMG that rots, what was I thinking, let me get the axe out.

Other times it's very much harder to do. You see the scene on the page but you can't see the problems. This is where having first readers and writers groups do come in handy. This is why I'm always thrilled to get something, anything, back from the original fiction filter (and why I feel like an ass when I fall behind on my end when it comes to reading others).

Granted you can get some people in a writers' group who literally get off on tearing you down. It's harder than you think to ignore them. Those comments get under the skin and fester even though you know there isn't much merit to it.

how you deal with the usable comments is the issue. It's like going in and stripping your baby naked. Sometimes from the group I get a fifty fifty split on what that scene. That'll make you tug out your hair. Usually if several people in the group says something doesn't work, I have to take them at their word and really go and look at that scene.

But it's hard. I find it very difficult to sit and edit. My brain wants to get to the next scene. I don't want to go back and rehash something. Worse, I don't want to fall into the edit and reedit rut (the one nano is supposed to break you out of).

So how do you guys deal with this task? Loathe it? Love it? Got tricks? I'm curious.

I managed to get in 2200 words this week

total yearly goal -

35542 / 175000 words. 20% done! (pathetic)

Riding with Strangers

33655 / 60000 words. 56% done!

Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron -

75529 / 80000 words. 94% done!

Beneath the Torn Sky -

56445 / 80000 words. 71% done!

New Erotic - picked their names and have a plot

Machivaelli moon (no editing speak of the devil)

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Sometimes editing is easier for me than composing, just because it's more left-brained. Not as interesting, of course, but when I'm frazzled and feel I still need to do some work, editing something old goes better than writing something new.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

When i'm too tired to write, generally yes, I don't mind editing. unfortunately for me usually I have to be editing at a time i want to be creating

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Since I'm working on two projects at different stages simultaneously, yes, I am composing and editing at the same time, too.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's good.

Sometimes my edits are composing too. Like recently they gave me a twist that I have to go set up better. Riding with strangers was 'done' as a novella so almost all my edits for that are me trying to fluff it up wiht red herrings and other suspects

[enemytosleep]

Hm, editing my own stuff can be tough sometimes. Not that I don't like doing it, but sometimes I'm too close to it to really see what needs tweaking. Editing other people's stuff is fun (when I know they aren't going to take it as an attack and just as food for thought).

I've fallen way behind on everyone's fiction (original or fan) lately and I feel terrible. I need a 2 week vacation: 1 to catch up on RL stuff, and another to catch up on online stuff. Don't see that happening though. XD

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it's very easy to be too close to your work. Truly. Heck Machiavelli Moon took me a ridiculously long time to realize my god yes the ending IS rushed and I really DO need to fix it.

It's always techy trying to figure out what someone wants in the way of critiques. We have two new members in my writers group. i'm not sure how they're going to react.

Even with the time off I have now I still can't seem to catch up. I feel really bad about that

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

By and large, I'm a big one for FINISH THE STORY, then worry about the edits. Lately because I'm doing so many things at once it's easy to set something aside once it's done and go back to it with a fresh mind later, sometimes with suggestions from readers (sometimes not), and if it has rested a while, it's usually a LOT easier to see what they're seeing and be able to decide whether or not I agree with them

The tough part I run into with readers groups is more a case of half of them LOVED something while the other half HATED it, and then I have to really think about that, which side I agree with! There are often times when I disagree completely with a reader, but rather than argue, I thank them politely and then leave things the way I think they should be.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

given the way I don't finish stories.... I really do need to go along and fix things as I go. Mostly when suddenly I realize well hell i should have done THIS back then (Like I just realized two things that I should have done with Splinters and need to go back and fix)

ANd I definitely hear you on the split writers' group issue. Happens every time.

My problem is i don't use the edits in a timely manner and if someone didn't tell me what chapter it was i lose track and then it becomes useless unless I can find a searchable phrase

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Nothing helps the editing process like letting a story sit. Time and distance work wonders.

I know Nano means well in breaking writers out of the edit-re-edit rut, but it doesn't stop people like me from endlessly re-editing their Nano stuff. I tend to get stuck on segments that didn't work right, and not be able to move on until I've fixed the problem. The Fox and the Shadow has been hung up for the better part of a year because that pivotal scene where Maru confronts his boss in the temple and tries to give back the thing he's carrying would never gel. Now that I've figured out what's wrong with that scene and how to fix it, I feel like going forward again. As things stood, I hadn't laid a logical foundation for what followed, and it bugged me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah to be honest, letting it sit is about the best thing I can do (when I can. these open call erotica, i usually don't have time)

and I'm there with you on reediting the nano to death.

Splinters is one of those. That'st h e one that needs more wolfiness from the werewolves and they just told me a major plot device that has NO foundation so guess what i have to do (since it would make sense if this hapened)

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're in the same predicament I am--you know what needs to be done, but it involves a lot of work. I've been putting off redoing my story because I'll have to back way up and rewrite an earlier scene to set up the temple scene, and every time I think about doing that much rewriting, I get tired and discouraged and find an excuse to go do something else. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just a little thing, but it's a systemic flaw, not a quick fix.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

trust me I know exactly what you mean. That's what has stalled me for years on Machiavelli Moon. I couldn't see the problem but that pro editor put their finger on it. Too many characters for one. I need to slice out one, reassign some actions and make the villian less of a cartoonish doofus

[anat-astarte.livejournal.com]

I'm the kind of person who can't edit my own stuff right away. What seems to work for me is to finish a piece and then leave it for a very very long time (months? a year? which is why I am horrible with timed work) and once that long period of time has passed it's only then that I can clearly see the parts that need improvement. It's when I try to edit too soon after finishing a piece that I fall into neverending edit and reedit cycle.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I do find that when I have time (for the novels that's always, short stories, almost never) is very helpful when it comes to editing. It helps to shove it on the shelf for a while.