The Writers Chat Room
Conversation, Inspiration and Support
Voted Writer's Digest 101 Best
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
Beginning and Master Writers all need to indulge in a little self-editing, now and again.
It is a skill best learned early because no matter how good we are we still need this particular set of tools.
I believe in a smidgen of self-restraint and don't like to let my hardcore editor out of her kennel until I have done some revisions.
The great thing about the time we live in is the availability of not just books on editing but word processing applications with multiple levels of edit-checks built right in.
Being skilled at self-editing will be much appreciated by the Editor your Publisher is about to assign.
Did I mention you never outgrow the need to edit your own work?
Meet us in The Writer's Chatroom at 7PM EST on Sunday 7 March
Tonight, we are wrapping up Character Relationship month by talking about signs our characters are not working in the roles we have given them.
Maybe they need to be recast in a different role. Maybe they don't need to be in the book at all. Much to Stephen King's disappointment, his editor for the first edition of The Stand, left a character, 'the kid' on the cutting room floor.
I own both versions and the absence of 'the kid' did not change my enjoyment of the book. Of course, in a first edition, I didn't miss anything at all. It was just that good.
After reading the uncut version of The Stand, well, 'the kid' added a creep factor and I never really bonded with him. In my readerly opinion, 'the kid' should have been cut from the first round.
