In my experience, there are two kinds of authors when it comes to editing: those who love it and those who hate it. I have not met one yet that says, “yeah, it’s ok.” But even those of us who love it sometimes find parts of it a grind.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about editing is knowing when to stop. In truth, a manuscript could always be better. Editing, tweaking, and rewriting could go on forever. But like a ship at dock, that’s not what books are for—they must be eventually freed and cast out into the world.
You can do them yourself, but you will always miss something. It is almost a requirement that for a manuscript to be clean, error free, and as best as can be, you need to find an editor. Whether it be through your publisher, agent, a freelancer (like us!), or a good friend who is really good at it (though we caution against the latter, unless they can be brutally honest with you.)
You have saved yourself the drudgery of editing, but you still have to review them. You still have to see what someone else said is wrong with your baby. The longer you write, and the more you write, the more you can distance yourself from this counter-productive emotional attachment. But even then…sometimes…it hurts.Yet we want our manuscripts to be the best. So how do you approach your manuscript which has been bloodied up by a pen-wielding Editor?
Chuck Sambuchino has written a post entitled “Facing the Edits: 7 Steps to a Happy Revision” that contain some good advice on approached your newly-edited manuscript.
- Before you open the document, take a deep breath and remind yourself that whoever is editing your manuscript has the story’s best interest at heart
- Pour yourself a drink.
- Give serious thought to who is providing the feedback.
- Print out the manuscript
- Implement those changes on the printed manuscript.
- Back at the computer, input all your edits and revisions, accepting or rejecting tracked changes as you come to them.
- Hide any remaining tracking marks and read the novel aloud.
Read the full post here, with more on each piece of advice.
Have ideas of your own? Or questions and responses to this post? Talk to us in the comments section below.
