So! I was ranting about editing. More particularly, I was ranting about editing FREAK and how my editing was so fun and stuff (hahaha... that never happens). And then Misty was like, "How do you edit?"
In which I suddenly stopped and gave a lame response, something about "Um... I move stuff."
But! I have given thought about it, and accordingly, I shall provide her (and the rest of you) with how I think I edit!
First, I do the reread. So basically I reread my story. Fun? Oh, definitely. But there's a particular way I do this. You see, many of you, when you reread your story, say, "Okay, what's wrong with this?" and then, after seeing everything that is wrong with your story, get overwhelmed.
And why not? By focusing completely on the bad stuff, your brain automatically shuts down. The bad stuff looms over the good stuff and suddenly, when you thought you might be a somewhat decent writer, you get discouraged and decide to throw away the story/poem/whatever.
That's not good...
Instead, I read it for the good stuff. What do I like? So instead of rereading it with dread in my heart, I reread it and actually find that I like most of it. There's just a couple of parts that are usually off.
So then I ask myself, "What was so good about the good parts?" Sometimes I like the dialogue, other times I like the pacing, and so on. It really varies from what chapter it is (remember, I am primarily a novelist). So I learn to love my story. And what's not to love? I've just complimented my story, and I feel very good about myself. This gives me inspiration and hope and motivation to answer the next question...
What sucks?
But no... that's only the first part. The next question, which is more interesting to us writers, is why does it suck? Because I can flail and die since there's this one scene that isn't working right, but if I don't know why it sucks, then I can't fix it. Because in the editing, editing isn't about realizing that something sucks. It's realizing how to fix it.
What usually is the case is one of my characters is unhappy. Why? Because I'm treaing that character like a puppet. So I play games with that character in my head and try to figure out what I can do to tweak the scene. Usually this means I have to do some rewriting... an insane amount, actually....
Other times, it's the way I have put things. Reading it out loud helps tremendously for this.
And sometimes the plot is slowed down by something that happens. Deleting stuff usually helps this.
Eep... so yeah. The main thing is the positive attitude towards reading. After that, the rest is just play.
I hope this helps!
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