My Top Five Editing Strategies as requested by pink_ink

[paulamcg]

Here I go again, writing about my writing, no matter what happens out there in the world. I’d love to hear how all of you write. Our writing is essential!

The way I write is very simple, just as I’ve already described here. Oh, when describing my writing process I forgot to mention research. I do check facts about real-world places, times, weather, music etc, but mainly just at the point in the story when I need them. I do have a separate document in which I make notes and paste links. (Sometimes, when I’ve decided that I want to write a story set in a particular year – e.g. the year when my character left Hogwarts – I search for music of that year before I start writing, and a song I find can work as inspiration and appear in the story.) What I don’t do is writing an outline beforehand – or any character charts, not even for original characters, not even for a chaptered fic (or I didn’t do that for the one, long chaptered fic I wrote). Almost always I write a story from the beginning to the end.

As for editing, it’s just an integral part of my daily writing of a fic, not a separate phase after completing the story. I couldn’t possibly count how many drafts I make. Or maybe I can. Three: the text as it is when I’ve just reached the end, the text after the first read-through after that, and the text I send to the beta. But there are only minor differences between these three texts and the final one, the text after I’ve made the corrections suggested by the beta (almost always all of them).

After reaching the end of the story, I usually leave the fic for a week or so (while I start something new and contact my beta – in case it’s a fest fic and beta is demanded, so that I have a reason not to be too shy to bother my beta) and then I read it again but make only the same kind of changes as I’ve kept doing while writing.

Perhaps this can be called a strategy.

And here’s finally a list of five editing situations in the order of how much pleasure I get from them.


1. Interacting with an amazing beta – and since last year I’ve had one again. liseuse has kindly helped me do the final edit every time I’ve asked her, and saved me from some embarrassing vocabulary errors, but hasn’t questioned the style or contents or suggested anything but minor corrections. This is the most rewarding stage of editing because I get brief positive feedback on how the story works for a reader, which is a treasure particularly when I get little feedback after publishing the fic.

2. Polishing my text constantly while writing. Rereading each paragraph, and every now and then from the beginning of the scene, and several times – also, of course, after reaching the end – from the very beginning. But making only minor corrections and stylistic changes, hardly ever changing the events or adding a whole sentence or more at any spot.

3. Changing the grammatical person in a WIP when I’ve tried to write it in (the more popular) third-person technique and want to give up because I’m sure that a first-person voice will work better.

4. Revising a story I wrote about fifteen years ago (before posting it on AO3) when I notice something in its style or in (minor details in) its contents doesn’t satisfy me any longer.

5. Reading a WIP on my phone on the way to work (while walking, standing at a bus stop or sitting on the bus) and making notes about details to be corrected. This is surprisingly useful because the different line breaks help me notice errors or repetitions more easily, and I sometimes get ideas for the continuation and make brief notes about those, too, on the phone.

Comments

[a_belladonna]

Perhaps it's possible for me because Danish and English after all are quite closely related? I don't know, it's something I've done for many years - I did the same when I had to do German housework, for instance.
I mostly do it when I come to a word that isn't so easily translated and where I know I'll probably have to do more research about the proper usage. I'm also awfully easily distracted...I have been known to start looking up other words and their meanings when I go to look up one word. *g*

Yes and no - it is only by skipping the parts that I realise that I don't need them. When I plot out the story they feel important. But at the same time I don't feel the story changes that much - except perhaps becoming a bit tighter in the narrative. :)

That’s one reason why I wish there were a culture of – or a corner for – concrit in my fandom.

Concrit is enourmously important. I dare say the times I've learned most has been when people say "I really like so and so, but you need to work on this and that". It just seems as if many people are very afraid or wary of receiving concrit. In a way I understand them, because there are too many people who don't know how to give concrit and end up just being dicks and rude.
Also, it is "just" a hobby and something for fun, so I can also understand if many people (perhaps especially younger people in fandom) aren't too interested in that part - they're here to have fun, not to be lectured like in school.
I just can't shake the feeling that there used to be a concrit community in HP, but perhaps I'm wrong.

[paulamcg]

Oh yes, I, too, sometimes end up spending a lot of time researching other words or other facts in addition those which made me interrupt writing. But I’m usually not in a hurry to return to my characters.

I agree. Concrit is important, but it can also be painful. I seem to forget how hard it was to receive any without feeling wounded and becoming too defensive. Now my beta points out only small, obvious errors and never suggests that I change anything bigger. And I don’t seriously look for or plan to start any concrit community. Nowadays it’s hard enough to get any more detailed feedback than kudos, let alone other than positive comments (or more detailed replies to detailed praise than "I’m glad you enjoyed it"). I don’t want to complain. It’s wonderful to see that some people have read my fic and some of them even left kudos.

[a_belladonna]

Indeed. It can really hurt if it's something you've really worked hard on and it is difficult not to become a little defensive.
But I'm still grateful for the person who once told me something along the lines of "your story is good, but the grammar is all over the place, it really needs to be tightened up." That the person then offered to beta read my stories and almost taught me more about English than my English teachers had done at school was just an added bonus. :)

I try to leave more detailed feedback but it's a fine line. There's for instance a story I recently read where Captain Haddock's sweater is described as being "a blouse" and I really want to point out to the writer that a blouse is not something an old sea lion would be wearing, that it is a rather female piece of clothing in English. But one has to tread carefully so as to not inadvertedly hurt the other person.
I think you're right that in today's fandoms feedback has changed a lot since the early 00's. (For instance my receipient in Smutty Claus never commented on the thing I did for them. I've never experienced that before.)

[paulamcg]

Now I can’t resist this chance to mention the hurt I felt fifteen years ago and haven’t been able to erase from my memory. Someone whose stories I’d admired and whom I finally got to read one by me did not point out errors in grammar, which I’d have been happy to correct, but advised me never to write first-person narrative and to stop writing about Remus as poor. Needless to say, I didn’t follow the advice. I cried and went on, developing my first-person style and the way of showing Remus’s poverty less blantantly.

Even though most of my comments on AO3 are somehow detailed, I don’t include concrit. When I feel the story is well-written and the writer has shown some interest in conversation, I can send a private message mentioning an error – like typo – I’ve spotted.

I noticed a big difference in a particular fest which I’d participated on Livejournal in the good old days. R/S Small Gifts had always been a heartwarming experience: I’d felt I received several gifts, not only the fic or art based on my prompt but comments on my fic (even though it was without sex) from… perhaps half of the participants. Now the fest is on DW and AO3, posts the fics on both. Last December I went overboard and in addition to my assignment I wrote three extra gifts. Two of the giftees didn’t respond even with kudos. One commented on DW, one on AO3, and the mods commented on two of the stories if I remember correctly. Otherwise my fic went unnoticed, even though I commented on a lot of works, and on everyone’s introduction in the advent of the fest. Oh, I’ve just checked and seen that my assignment fic received six comments on DW, so I must be satisfied. It seems I easily remember the disappointments most clearly.

My point is that perhaps we shouldn’t take the lack of feedback from even the giftee personally. It could be that now that the fandom is spread on several platforms – even within one fest – people might not follow or return to check out their gift.

[a_belladonna]

People can be so mean, when there's a screen between us. :( I was also once told that my art was "barely above the level of stick-figures".
You did the right thing, IMO. When people are saying that kind of things, it's better to straighten one's back and continue.

You're probably right about the fandom having been spread out being part of it. I also think that people have become accustomed to leaving a 'like' instad of a comment because of sites like Facebook and Tumblr. Personally, I savour every kudos I receive. :)

[paulamcg]

Thank you! I don’t think that the writer fifteen years ago meant to be mean; I was just too sensitive and interpreted the words as harsh. But how could anyone say that about your art! I think the closest to rudeness I’ve experienced has been just being ignored. And now I’ve learnt not only to know but also to feel that getting kudos doesn’t mean being ignored, on the contrary!

[a_belladonna]

True; sometimes things can come out a bit more clumsily when writing. Perhaps that's what happened back then?
And yes, I still don't understand why she felt the need to tell me that. I think the person was busy trying to become a "big name" in fandom or something.

Being ignored also hurts, yes. And in that regard kudos are great, because it's such an easy way to show your appreciation of a work. :)

[paulamcg]

Yes, I suppose I must conclude that the kudos function – which I didn’t first like at all, because there’s no natural way to thank for it and to continue the interaction – is great. Because even I can’t interpret it wrong. I don’t know about your case back then, but I guess I can lay the blame on myself, as I sought acknowledgment from someone who was at least closer to BNF than I was.