Self-Editing: I Really Need To Do This More

Before we get to the actual purpose of this post, Victory would like to say one thing:

My life is full of fuck.

Thank you, dduane, for correcting me – indeed, it was Wolfram von Eschenbach who first wrote down the original version of Parsifal, not Sir Tomas Malory. The edit is greatly appreciated.

And yes, for those of you wondering just why, exactly, dduane sounds familiar, that's because she is Diane Duane, author of So You Want To Be a Wizard, the book I included in my list of books that use the 'average teen with latent powers and/or destiny' section of my last post. And yes, for those of you hissing in sympathy and/or crowing 'dduane for the win', I was thoroughly embarrassed. Not for what I said – that is entirely my personal opinion, as are all of my posts, and I will not apologise for them. But because she actually found the one post where I said something bad about that series... -sighs- Well, can't win all of them.

However, in spite of the slightly (ahem) clichéd beginning of the Young Wizards series, can I just say: I am only ever critical towards works (excepting, of course, the Mary-Sues) I greatly respect. Everything else is, at the risk of sounding egocentric, not worth my time. And dduane, I am honoured you took the time to read my post.

Alright, now that the grovelling is over, let's get to the purpose of this post: self-editing. Many high-school English teachers will tell you this is impossible. I ask you now to imagine a buzzer going off.

I am here to tell you they're wrong. It's harder, yes; you have a bias, yes; but before you can count it out, consider that whole draft process they told you about in English class. And what is that but a self-edit?

Cue lightbulb.

When editing, it's important to keep your bias in mind. You will always be biased; that's what makes an editor a writer's best friend (and occasionally their most hated enemy.) But sometimes that bias will come in handy. Where an editor could potentially look at a chapter and say 'cut it' without blinking an eye, a writer would remember favourite sentences and rewrite the chapter, thus salvaging something that, without a bias, would be scrapped.

On the other hand, seriously consider the import of the section to the rest of the piece. If it's a long soliloquy on life and the meaning thereof in the middle of a teenage comedy novel? You might want to reconsider that. Remember the focus of the piece – the overarching atmosphere and (I hate to say it) 'message' of the writing. Metaphors, while beautiful, can clog up a perfectly good piece of work. Motifs should have something to do with the mood of the piece, and show up more than when you're just in the mood to plop them in.

Grammar. The foe of writers. We simultaneously hate it and love it (it makes us sound so pretty, but it's such a bitch to work with; it's a bit like the main soprano in Norma, actually.) But no matter your opinion, it can sometimes be the most painful part of editing. That clever work of wordplay? Just got bitch-slapped by the fact that you put an unnecessary apostrophe in 'its', ruining the meaning. Applause, jack ass. Now fix it.

But grammar is a sneaky bastard – sometimes a sentence that reads normally fails fantastically once read aloud and you realise you used the wrong 'their' or 'to'. And while writers would like to think themselves above it, everyone does it. Even Victory (though I hate admitting it. It's like admitting that you peed in the pool. Shameful.)

Oh, but then there is something beyond even grammar that makes the main soprano from Norma look easy to work with, and that's rhythm.

There was once a poet that went outside and stood on a cliff, shouting his works to the wind, just to make sure it sounded right. That, m'dears, is dedication, and if you don't have a cliff, go find one, because you need dedication to make it in this line of work.  I'm not talking iambic pentameter, here – just make sure your sentence trips off the tongue like a klutz up the stairs. And shake it up – place short sentences amid long ones, or the reader will fall asleep.

So remember:

1.         Focus: Find it, and stick with it. Take care to repair where you step out of line.

2.         Grammar: Learn it, use it, and for the love of the Goddess, don't lose it!

3.         Rhythm: If you don't have this, go out and purchase soul music, and soul food, and soul cakes, because you need some serious soul. Or listen to jazz. Or rock. Something with a driving rhythm. And start using it.

I should really start making these posts longer, but unfortunately, I only have enough time between this, fanfic, and trying to finish up Sepulchre in time to publish it before I'm eighteen to write short, two page things.

Next up: I tackle dialogue. And yes, it will be written entirely in script form.