Wednesday 9 November 2011

Editing

Editing is painfully boring - going over each sentence and word, reading it aloud until you are cross-eyes, looking for better ways of saying things. I find it difficult, mostly because I start to question whether I need a particular word - sentence- paragraph - actually, what the hell is this chapter for, anyway? If I'm not careful, the chapter can be whittled away to nothing. Somewhere along the whittling process is an improved draft, but it's tricky knowing when to stop. 
I'm reading my Revision and Self-Editing book, but it doesn't make the process any easier! I've done chapter 27, and am working on chapter 28. That just leaves chapters 1-26 and 29-end to do. Sigh. Distractions beckon - I have wiped out legions of zombies this morning, and eaten too many cookies. 
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3 comments:

  1. Tony French10 November 2011 at 12:01:00 GMT

    Is 'self-editing' a contradiction - that's part of writing - editing can only be done by someone else. [I try to provoke.]

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  2. Rebecca Alexander11 November 2011 at 18:42:00 GMT

    It's an American book...but I don't have an issue with using the word self-editing for rewrites!

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  3. Glynis Peters 15 November 2011 at 09:14:00 GMT

    I found using a text to speech programme really captured lots of errors. I was amazed by how much quicker it worked for me.

    A friend told me she prints off her work and then cuts the pages in half and numbers them. She randomly picks 20 per day and edits them. This way she doesn't get bored. She then tapes them back together and corrects on the computer. It is too long winded for me, but works well for her.

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