On Edits: A bitch session

The Workshop Collection

“Oh, I hate editing.” All non-writers say this. Many early writers say it, too.

“I never edited what I wrote in college.” Engineers say this. I adore the engineers I work with, but I also imagine tying them to chairs so they have to listen while I lecture about respect for the arts.

In short, non-editor = non-writer. Or early writer. People can grow.

Any writer who has ever verbed a noun (and felt uneasy doing it) knows editing is an art as essential as putting words on the page in the first place. No first draft is brilliant. It may contain shades of brilliance, but editing is what pulls these out and makes them vivid. Or visible.

Nor is an edit an uncomplicated process of “Oh, hey, you missed a comma.” It deals with deeper questions, the why of the story itself, as well as the cadence of language and, yes, those commas. There are different types of editing, from macro to micro to copy. If you’re interested in this beyond a 3 minute read, the best editing book I’ve found was assigned for one of my classes: The Artful Edit, by Susan Bell. Bell discusses macro concerns, such as story shape, structure, theme, and character, as well as micro-edit concerns like language, clarity, and authenticity. Writers must pay attention to all. And more.

Warning: If you find someone who calls himself a writer and refuses to edit, run. You’ve found an arrogant douche canoe who vomits “philosophical musings” onto a page and then gets pissy and (extra) pompous when anyone tries to make his prose not suck. Also, he’s probably an energy vampire. And maybe a regular vampire. But not a very old one, or he’d have learned how to be more seductive and less annoying.

Your Ever-Loving,

Vivian Walker Ward