An Updated Thought about Editing

An Updated Thought about Editing · 9 December 2023

I have come to like the editing process. Really.

I know have said that edit is a four-letter word. In the bad sense of four-letter words. But I have changed my mind. Oh, it is still a four-letter word. Literally. (“Literally” is quite the word play in and of itself, I might add. Although it was not intentional. Wait. This is a written piece of work, and I do not need to admit that. Ah well. Wait. This is a written piece that I can still edit.) But I have come to the realization that EDIT no longer brings me dread and loathing.

Okay. Dread and loathing are overstatements, but that is okay. They convey the meaning that I want. And frankly, I think they are words that other writers use when thinking of editing. (Not that I would really know, but it sounds good.) After all, if I used to hate it, there are surely other writers who do not like it either. Assuming that I am a fairly typical writer.

(Speaking of fairly typical. I wonder if anybody is really a fairly typical anything. Think about it. If everybody is different, then can anybody really be typical? Even fairly typical? It sounds like a contradiction in terms. Ah well. Sometimes I think that I am a contradiction in terms. But that is another story. I wonder if I wrote it already. Hmm.)

Back to editing. Rather, back to writing about editing. A strange thought in and of itself.

I have come to the realization that editing is a good thing. It helps to clarify thoughts. It helps to make sure the story is logical and flows right. It helps to get rid of those pesky places where you typed some word twice or forgot to type some important word. If I did not do all of my own writing and editing (or at least most of my writing and editing) when everybody else in the house is asleep, I would probably read my work aloud when editing. I think that would help the editing process. It would help me hear the mistakes and the typos and the logic errors. Okay. Maybe not the logic errors. I usually catch those when I do any number of read-throughs.

Which is funny. That is really what my editing sessions are. Just read-throughs. I read through my books to see if they are any good. And then, whether I think they are any good or not, I publish them anyway. Yes. You read that right. I publish them anyway. I get the story down as best as I can and get the errors out as best as I can. Then, I publish it. I do that because in the final analysis, we can be our own worst critics and not publish a gem. True, it is more likely that we are not critical enough and publish a stinker. But think about it. If you do not put yourself out there in the first place, you will never know what anybody else thinks. Let somebody else tell you that your writing stinks. Somebody whose job it is to do so.

At least that is my thought on the subject of publishing. Put it out there and let others decide whether you are a good writer or not.

I know that I have gotten off the subject of editing, but that is okay. I do have one other thought. People say that you should not be your own editor. Which might be true. But I also think it is false. At least to some degree. You must be your own editor before you decide to send anything to a professional editor. Unless, of course, you are a paid writer already. But even then, you need to give your own stuff a onceover at least once. Just to see if the story makes any sense at all. Which is funny. That is often my editing. That onceover. Just make sure it is okay. And maybe give it another onceover just for good measure.

Well, that is about it. EDIT is no longer a four-letter word for me. At least not in the figurative sense. But it is still a four-letter word literally. (I liked that word play so much, I had to use it twice.) And I now enjoy the editing process. Really.

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