WRITING 411: Why I love edits

Since I write artilces about writing for my local chapter (because I'm currently President and they make me =) and occassionally do the same for other blogs, I thought I'd made WRITING 411 post regular here too. This one was originally posted Friday, May 7, 2010, on the LPI blog.

I’ll freely admit I stalk my inbox for edits. If my wonderful, lovely, talented editor Mary teases me and says she is working on edits for me – I will literally check my inbox every hour until they show up. It may seem odd, but I’m going to try and explain.

As a pantser I’m a great first draft-er. I write about 50-60 pages, to get to know my characters, then I’ll do what I call “Stop and Plot”. Then I’ll finish the first draft. I have a great critique partner who’ll read the entire thing at this point (warts and all). Then I’ll go back and work out any plotting issues. It works for me.

Except I’m ready to move on at that point. I have zero desire to edit. I’ll let it sit and sit and sit. I’ve got a couple of manuscripts at this point right now.
In the past three months I’ve taken two self-editing / polishing classes. Both offered great information. A few things were explained in ways that really clicked for me. Still, I’ve not been in the mood to dig into edits for any of the stories I have that need editing desperately.

Until… edits landed in my inbox for my next release with Lyrical. Once I started the round of edits, my brain started firing on all its editing cylinders. Now I want to edit anything and everything thing. I have no idea why this works, but after writing for this long, I’ve learned to go with what works right now. And when I get edits – it sets me into to full blown edit mode.

I read the notes and comments and suggestions and do what needs to be done in the manuscript I’m working on, and then I’ll immediately jump into the next one and do the same. It’s like my brain shifts to edit mode as soon as I open a fresh “edits” file. It’ whacky and wonderful all at the same time! I guess my point is -- learn what works for you. If you’re like me and have a hard time digging into edit, try this next time you get edits in – or if you’re not to the point of getting edits – try next time you get a critique (because I know you’ve found that wonderful critique partner – or I hope you have!). I’m crawling back into the editing cave while it lasts!