Everything I read about writing fiction treats editing as a necessary chore. The books I've read, the other authors I've heard speak, have all advised something along the lines of, "You're going to hate editing your work, but do it anyway. You have to".
Honestly, and maybe this is because I'm a complete oddball in just about every other facet of my life, I love editing. I'm now going through Digilife AGAIN, editing and cleaning stuff up that I don't like. It seems that I find something new to correct every time I go through something I've written.
This latest go round I've focused on two things. First, getting rid of the word "just", particularly in dialogue. I overuse the word for some reason. For instance, that last sentence in Digilife would have read: "I just overuse the word for some reason". Thankfully, whether with MS Word or Open Office, find and replace/delete is easy.
The other thing, and this one is a bitch, is removing passive voice sections. I've never gotten the hang of it. I always seem to write, "He was staring" rather than "He stared".
In any case, I'm pretty sure this means I'm a self-loathing masochist, but what are you gonna do?
Just don't start pulling a "George Lucas" on your fans (please!)...
ReplyDeleteHa, no, nothing substantiave is being changed. And I promise not to edit out/in any shouts by villians :)
ReplyDeleteThat's just it... I don't enjoy editing because it tends to bring out my worst side. I'm an admitted perfectionist (I admit that at times my grammar can be atrocious) who has a tic when he sees spelling errors. So when I edit, I'm really brutal, leaving nothing unturned. When I edit my work, I tend to leave no stone unturned and it can kill me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBut if I may be of assistance, I would suggest looking at Ian Fleming's books. If you want to be rid of passive voices, make it actions. Make it like it's a movie scene. There is nothing passive. Observe:
"I stared at the long dark web of silence as I turned on the nightlight. The wind whistled through my non-existent hair, playing lovely melodies with the wind chimes that were hanging on my front porch. I had never felt the urge to do so, but the music took me back to a childhood where I played with my cousins in the backyard with a football."
See? Just think "Lights, camera, action". Hope that helps.
Ahem...there is passive voice in that passage.
ReplyDelete"playing lovely melodies with the wind chimes that were hanging on my front porch."
"Were hanging" would be "hung" in none-passive voice.
I win!
I always get hung up on hanging. Having a hung jury versus hanged jury is always a reason I try to avoid the word with a passion.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's easy to change the lovely melodies. "Played a lovely melody with the wind chimes on my front porch."
Jay with the comeback victory!