How do you get motivated for editing?

[celesta]

I'm editing some short stories...well I'm supposed to be. I find editing to be not that fun...painful actually. And the worst part is getting started.

Any tips? How do you get motivated for editing?

[paulinecreeden]

So I finally finished a novel - around Nov 15, (79000 words) and I thought yay! I'm done - and then someone told me that the typical novel for them takes 6 months to edit. UGH

I hate editing. That said -I've done a once through and added some description, took out discrepencies, and it ended up still 79K almost exactly

Then I sent it to my first "beta" reader - came back and made the changes - down to 78K now...

Now it's off to the next reader/editor and will make changes upon return (hopeful!) But this is what I've done... (and it helps that I absolutely LOVE snapple iced tea, and only allow myself to have one while I write/edit)

[Kessie]

For me? Deadlines.

I enjoy editing once I'm actually doing it. It's kind of like solving a puzzle. But I dread it when I'm not doing it because it takes so much brainpower.

[celesta]

Yeah. It does take a lot of brain power. And the longer the story the more you have to hold in your head. Hmm...maybe that's why it feels so painful. Brain overload

Got one short story edited today. And it actually wasn't as hard as I was thinking that it was going to be.

[dragonlots]

Deadlines. I seem to be one of the very few writers who works very well with them. They're a great motivator to get the story written, edited and submitted.

Now editing novels...that takes time, but having a publisher wanting/waiting to see them...great motivation to getting it done.

Besides, I'm also the editor for an anthology to be released late next year. I'll have tons of editing to do, plus choosing which stories to include. It's a great learning exercise and helps me with my own writing as well. Not to mention my publisher is great to work for and I know when she wants it released. MHC will be interesting for me next year...

[celesta]

Mmm...too bad no publisher is waiting to read my latest works. Any other ideas?

[dragonlots]

Celesta,

Has taken me a number of years to get to where I am right now. Opportunities keep dropping in my lap, so I jump at them. God did warn me when I started publishing, things would happen quick. I'm so glad I knew beforehand.

One bit of advice, editors are not too bad to work for. The worst critique group you could ever have is a room full of English majors. Although, if you need someone to read for you, an English major is a good idea.

There are also critique groups. Getting feedback from them is a great way to motivate a person to edit their work.

[Kessie]

The Anomaly's Sandbox is a nice crit group of the folks in here. Once the holidays are over, I'll be open for more work to crit, because it helps me get better in my own writing/editing. It's a Yahoo group:

groups.yahoo.com/group/AnomSandbox/

[newburydave]

Um, my motivation for editing is that I want to get all the embarrassing gaffes, goofs and "I didn't really write that did I" moments out of my MS before I show it to any one else.

I mostly think of it as the price of making a publishable work. Now, how to get it done is something else again.

I keep getting writers block on my most recent novelization project.

Ah, well; maybe the next cut will work.

SGD
dave

[yoda47]

I love deadlines.... I like the whooshing noise they make as they go flying past.

[Kessie]

I got Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for Christmas. I read the whole thing today, and I'm so excited. It pointed out several things that I know I do wrong but didn't know how to fix. Until now!

[Teskas]

Dec 24, 2011 15:33:31 GMT -5 yoda47 said:

I love deadlines.... I like the whooshing noise they make as they go flying past.

I focus on the idea that not to edit after committing all that time and energy into the draft is lacking respect for the time and talent which the Lord has given into my care. The edit is definitely hard work. Ben Bova advises authors to put an opus in a drawer for three months, leave it, and do something else. He says it will be much easier to see its virtues and vices with the passage of time. I've tried his advice and it seems to work.

[celesta]

I guess I get meant to say how do you get the emotional motivation? I just hate re-reading and finding all the mistakes. I find it disheartening and it makes me feel so tired.

[yoda47]

Dec 29, 2011 16:27:06 GMT -5 celesta said:

I guess I get meant to say how do you get the emotional motivation? I just hate re-reading and finding all the mistakes. I find it disheartening and it makes me feel so tired.

I don't mind the re-reading (the first few dozen times...) and I guess it find finding the mistakes more amusing than anything. "Oh no. How on earth did I miss THAT?"

As an example, I spelled "minutes" as "minuets"... consistently through the whole book... I'm not sure how... so I had to go back and take all the unintended dancing out...

The part I hate is looking at a sentence and thinking "this doesn't work... and I have NO IDEA why..."

[Kessie]

I enjoy reading my own work and rearranging it to make it better. I just hacked apart a story and I'm stitching it back together in a different order with a different first half (more train wrecks, less long talky bits). It's exhilarating, seeing it all come together and knowing how much better it is.

Really, the hardest thing is not running off to the next story, because the characters developed so much in this draft, I can't wait to carry that over to the sequel.

Also I like visiting with my characters. I'm trying to edit them so other people will like them, too, without my bloated sentence structure getting in the way.