Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Many Faces of Editing

Well, I'm at home with a hiking injury so I'm devoting today to editing. (What the heck else am I going to do?) I'm not talking the first phase, where I just hit the Spellcheck button. No, I'm way beyond that phase...oh, wait. Have I talked to you all about my loosely defined phases of editing?

Muawahahahahaha! Okay, here we go. Come join the crazy world that is AR.

Phase 1: Denial Editing. "I just finished this wonderful masterpiece. All it needs is a quick spell check and it's off to the races of submission wars." (After this phase I put it away for a couple weeks to fight off the early-submission urge.)

Phase 2: Awareness Editing. "I know this is perfect, but just let me check to make sure...Uh, that didn't come out quite how I'd hoped...that either. What the Wisconsin?" (After this phase I am usually ego deflated and put the manuscript away in shame for a couple weeks.)

Phase 3: Revelation Editing. "Let's pull this work of crap out and see what I can make of it...oh, those changes did make this better. If I just change these little things...it'll be perfect again." (After this phase, I'm heading towards the happy part of writing again.)

Phase 4: Final Touches. "It's finished...but why can't I tell the difference between you're and your or there and their when I'm in full writing mode?"

So, there are my 4 loosely defined phases of editing. Usually phase 2 and 3 are rinsed and repeated several times before reaching phase 4.

Good writing all!

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