The Dreaded Editing! DUHN DUHN DUHN...Please Help!!!?

Question:

The Dreaded Editing! DUHN DUHN DUHN...Please Help!!!?

ok, I am okay now. So I was wondering what are your tips on how to edit my novel? Do you have maybe a link or two. I am currently using Critique Circle and its great but I am the person that actually has to change the story. So any help would be great.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm a published novelist and instructor in the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, and I think you're asking a bigger question than you realize. Where to begin?

I'll make three general suggestions. One is that you be willing to accept that the story in your head is not yet on the page...and will never be! It's impossible to use the imperfect medium of language to transmit the story as you experienced it to the reader. The reader has to be your collaborator and do half of the imagining. Realize not only that you'll never get your exact story into the reader's head, but that your story only comes alive when the reader does much of the imaginative work anyway. So in revision, look out for places where you've told the reader too much. Does a character's hair color matter to the story? If so, make sure that it's mentioned immediately and that the reader is reminded of it now and then. But if it makes no substantial difference to the story, leave out that detail.

Two, a good standard for revision is to look at each page of your draft and ask, "Does the reader know, on this page, at this moment of the story, what this character wants right now?" Thwarted desire is the engine that drives fiction, particularly novels. Some of my students write pages where action is happening because the story demands it, and in revision I ask them to make clear that the characters are acting because of what each of them wants.

Three, let go. Be willing to discover that what much of what you have on the page so far is only a step you had to take in order to discover the story. It is possible that all you need in revision is to make superficial changes. Hooray! But be open to the possibility that you have deeper re-thinking to do about what your story is and how best to tell it.

Some of the biggest barriers to success in writing are psychological, and I address some of them in my book, Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer. I don't really address revison per se, but the main message of that book (so you don't have to read it now!) is that every writer struggles, suffers, gets frustrated...and it's all okay! Just keep on keeping on. If revision makes you feel crazy at some point, remember that most writers feel a little crazy sometimes. Keep on keeping on.

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