Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.
Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.
How do you know when you’ve done all the editing you can on your story? Or that you’ve gone too far?
I’m going to have to refer you to my post of August 1st, in which I explained how I can’t control the pacing of what I’m writing. As far as I’m concerned, when I transcribe what I’m shown in my head, that’s the story I’m supposed to write, warts and all.
There’s no editing on my part, what I see is what you get. I’ve learned to leave it as it is, to accept that what I’ve seen is enough to begin with.
I have an editor whose sole function is to check for spelling and grammar, and beta readers who tell me what they think of the story. They might suggest things that could improve the clarity or enhance pieces of action. I will always listen to them and see if I can use their ideas, this will be the only time that I consider any sort of revision.
As an example, my last novel, We Are Saul, was written as a linear story, i.e. from start to finish in chronological order. There was no plotting involved.
Writing just over 70,000 words took me 25 days of NaNoWriMo 2021. On completion, I immediately passed it to my editor (who was on standby). After her corrections and based on her notes, I added about 1000 words to the story and sent it to my beta readers. When I had their contributions, I added another 2000 or so words and my editor had it again for a final check on all things grammatical.
Her corrected version was complied into eBook and paperback formats and put on sale.
And that was it.
In case you’re wondering, I’ve always written this way. It must work reasonably well because so far, nobody has told me that there are plot holes or problems with continuity in any of my novels.
Until next time.
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Stevie Turner
Well done to write so many words in only 25 days. That would take me about 6 months, lol.
Richard Dee
Thanks, it’s something about NaNo, it brings out the speed writer in me.
Daryl Devore
We are all different in our writing and editing styles and that is a good thing. It allows us our voice.
Tweeted.
Richard Dee
I had an editor who wanted my work to have her voice. We parted company.
P.J. MacLayne
I’ve done Nano a couple of years with about a 50% success rate. I, too, write differently when I am pushing myself to write so many words in such little time.
Richard Dee
By summer’s end, I’m in a slump, there are too many distractions and my output has slowed. NaNo gets me back on track.
Samantha Bryant
Always interesting how individual a writing process can be.
Richard Dee
Thank you, it’s still a mystery to me how it all works.