Editing Series 1 - Why Self-Edit? Posted on March 29th
“I suppose some editors are failed writers; but so are most writers.” –T.S. Eliot
This is the first in a series of articles which will cover the art of editing. I am a fiction writer, so what I am contributing is based around the editing process involved when working on a novel or short story. That is not to say that some of the techniques do not apply to other genres, it is just beyond my expertise to say exactly where they overlap.
I thought I would start out this series with an answer to a very simple question. Why self-edit? That answer is of course, because nobody else will.
“From my experience, there’s very little editing being done in the publishing houses anymore,” said Mr. Demaris, the author of 15 hard-cover books.”
The above quote is taken from an interesting NY Times article, titled, “A New Deal for Editors.”
The truth is that the days of thoughtful, supportive editing and editors are over with. Nowadays, authors, and especially first time novelists, are being “printed,” rather then “published.” Do to slipping sales, publishing houses are editorially short-handed. It is a fact that behind almost all of the great writers, was a great editor. Would Hemingway and Fitzgerald have written the way they did without Maxwell Perkins?
Now, what does that mean for someone like myself who is working on a novel? Since the goal is to see our work into its fullest potential, it means that it is going to be up to us to see to this, for the most part, alone. I do not think, no matter how inspired the writing gets, that my work would ever be able to stand alone without the help of someone else’s reading. One of the aspects of my MFA that I appreciate most is to hear what others have found lacking when they read my work. We have to learn to accept that if we want to be published, we must also work for our readers. Editors are a good bridge between these two extremes.
What I think needs to be understood is that if this role is going to be left almost entirely up to us, we have to develop a split personality in regards to our work. On the one hand we have to allow ourselves the freedom to create, and the freedom to express ourselves and to tell our stories for the pleasure of what it means to us. On the other, when that is over, we have to completely shift gears and focus on making it the best it can be for other readers. One is not always the same.
As cliché as it might sound, we have to read our writing like editors. We have to see our work the way an editor might see it, and do to it what a publishing house might have done. With that said, the time to edit is in my opinion not while writing the first draft. The processes of writer and editor are too far off.
In the series of articles which are to follow, I will be talking about some of the main points to consider during the revision process. It is important to keep in mind that these rules which relate to craft are not always open to the artistic, creator side of our personalities. But that is fine, because we are not working in that element for the time being. We are going to be looking at our work like editors, and in the end by combining the two we will hopefully bring our work to the best that it can be.
