A long time ago, someone offered to edit my stories, and I was grateful. They are deceased now. The results were not good in my estimation. I don't remember if that story, or chapter ever got published. Since then I have gone over what I have written sometimes a half dozen times before I published it. Sometimes stories just go comatose on my Hard Drive because I can't get it right.
Some Authors I know write their chapters on the BCTS editor in an evening and then it goes online. Their work is astonishing to me. I have followed the one I am thinking of for yonks (A UK term for a long time). How can they do that? It makes me feel terribly untalented.
Sigh.
Gwen
Comments
Read "On Writing"
In Stephen King's book about writing, he provides an example of his first draft and the edits he made.
You're no less of a writer because you don't get it right the first time.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
First Drafts are never the best drafts
I've been lucky to have worked with a very talented editor and I assure you that finding a good (and patient) match makes all the difference in the world.
Editing results depend upon expectations
I think that what you get from an editor depends upon what they are asked to do. Basic editing results would be to only correct punctuation and grammar. If you are lucky to find an editor who will also collaborate with you, they can help enhance the story with suggestions.
As far as writing quickly and easily, I think that everything comes with practice. The more you write, the faster you will write and the more polished your initial draft will be. The important thing is not to let yourself become discouraged and give up.
The quality of what we write
varies from day to day, season to season, mood to mood.
I was editing a story of mine yesterday and several parts of it were as if I had a brain fug when I wrote it. Sentences were all there but in parts, the words were all jumbled up and clearly made zero sense.
I went back over my work log and found that when I had written those parts of the story, I was messed up emotionally due to the death of my mother in Jul 2021.
The thought of an editor trying to grapple with that rubbish made me smile.
Don't fret about getting an editor. Many of us post here without the aid of one other than ourselves. I tend to leave my work alone for at least a month between writing and even thinking about publishing it.
If you leave stories on your computer then you only have your view of how good (or bad they are). Why not post them and learn from the feedback?
Samantha
brain fug
Giggling now. Was this a real typo or did you deliberately type "brain fug" to amuse us.
Not that brain fog is amusing. I suffered through an intense bout of that a half year after getting COVID.
BTW, I frequently find that when I read stuff I wrote over a month ago, I will catch all sorts of things I could not find while first writing and editing something. That's a good idea.
Brain Fug?
It was deliberate. I'm glad that you found it funny as well as something that you could relate to.
Samantha
In My Younger Days...
...I ingested my brain "fug" 12 ounces at a time.
Setting aside your writing for a month seems to give the perspective of a reader.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I’ve had
Several editors over the years but currently I don’t use one (one passed away, another no longer had the time etc). What I do now is post new stuff on my Patreon feed where my supporters can offer opinions/comments. After that I sort out grammar and punctuation issues before it goes for ‘public’ consumption.
I won’t claim them to be perfect at this point but they are at least as good technically as commercially published books I buy. That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues that I pick up down the road but I will have caught most stuff!
As for writing speed, we’ll I’m a one finger typist so hurry is nothing close, if I’m on a roll I can get out @ 500 words an hour but with research time it’s often much less. And then of course there’s the muse issue and plot crafting - my writing is very organic, often with just the barest of plot lines.
It’s not ideal to be the editor and writer, you can miss stuff simply because your head says it’s how it should be!
Mostly though, write for you not for a timetable.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
editor
Be clear to your editor what you expect from him/her/it/...
Then try out. Does it fit, great, if it doesn't just tell in a friendly way that it doesn't feel good to you and stop.
If you just can't get a story right, maybe you need a co-author or something like it instead of a editor.
With regards to the speed of writing, how many people do you know who can run as fast as Usain Bolt? It's partly gaining your 10000 hours but even so it's also about what makes you you.
Yours, Leontine
Writing with the BCTS Editor
I don't know how I would do it, but I think I'll go figure it out for my own amusement. I use MS Word and that is fine for me, though I know those who have nothing good to say about it.
Gwen
Emending
My approach to beta reading is much less grammar and spelling than it is offering suggestions to enhance the story presentation. If the author and I can't agree that it is her story -- and that my suggestions are one hundred percent optional -- I don't want to be part of the project.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Adventures in Editing
There's a dramatic, very literary movie about editing -- I recommend it highly. It has the awful, unimaginative, pedestrian title of Genius. I guess the film editor (a little joke there) let that one go through.
I mean, if someone tells you there's a movie called, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, you already know (1) that at least one ship is involved, (2) there's a military theme, (3) hilarity ensues. You also come with a question: Why does the Army have a ship? Best of all, the title UNIQUELY identifies the movie. If you ask someone, "What's the name of that movie where there's these soldiers with a weird boat...," you've got some kind of chance of getting the right answer.
But if you ask "What's the movie about editing that really long book?" NO ONE will say "Genius."
If you ask someone "This movie is called Genius. What do think it's about?" You could come up with a thousand scenarios, all of them mutually exclusive as far as content. You'd have "tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited," as Shakespeare put it.
I don't think anyone would guess the characters, the theme, or the plot.
Anyway, it's a good movie, but it doesn't make clear which of the two men is the Genius: is the editor? or the author?
I recall a friend who had her first novel published. She was upset that her editor was "inserting cliches" into her writing. As her editor might put it, my friend was as angry as a wet hen.
I had a second friend whose first novel was published, and I was astonished when I read it. It scanned like a dream. It resembled a display of polished jewels. I'm sure he didn't know how to write like that when we were in our writer's workshop together. The jewel-like beauty had to be due to his editor, who swooped in with a scalpel, a shovel, and a trowel loaded with stucco.
Everybody has an opinion about writing, and editors get to inflict their opinions at a late stage in the process. Consequently, it can hurt your feelings. It *can* improve your writing, or at least the piece they're working on.
I have done some editing of other people's stuff. I don't think I'm great at it. But I do edit the hell out of my own stuff. It takes a lot of time. What I do with my own stuff is to write it, rewrite it, delete it and write it again. I'm not kidding. Usually -- for me at least -- starting from zero is easier than rewriting. So many times when I try to rewrite chapters in place, I discover that I've already written a certain passage further down or further back in the story. It's aggravating. I don't like merging. It's easier to clear the deck, line up the scenes, and go at it. It's faster the second time.
The day after I post a chapter I go back, re-read it, and fix things.
One of the biggest elements, I think, in writing, is how quickly you can write. It changes your feeling toward your productions when you know you can re-create them from scratch.
Some people sneeze and ten thousand words come out. Other people struggle over each paragraph, or each sentence. Some people are lucky enough that they can compose stories in BCTS editor and are satisfied with the end result. Others of us toil for a week or more before we can upload a chapter. Speaking for myself, I edit my one-paragraph comments over and over obsessively until they quit bothering me.
You have to do what you can. You have to find out what works for you.
As far as editors editing my stuff, I feel like -- I've written a lot of stuff here. Any prospective editor would have to prove themselves by taking something I've already finished and transmuting it into something better. (By the way, that's not an invitation; it's an expression of my feeling, that's all.)
In other words, if you're thinking of working with an editor, my recommendation is that you give them a COPY of one of your finished works, the older the better, and after they've had at it, compare it to your original, and see which you like better.
Good luck and keep writing.
- io