A note on editing

well, finally went back to a piece I have been working on for a while

This is a short story set in a future world after the end of the age of oil, and it is quite dystopic

But that is not the point.

This is around 4K words... and today, after three weeks of not looking at it, or even thinking about it, I went back and edited it

You'd be surprised how that fresh set of eyes helped in the editing process

It is not ready yet to go to market. It probably needs a couple more passes, which means another two months, but that will make it a stronger piece.

And yes, that is the way things get better. Oh and remember, rumor has it Heminway edited the last chapter of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" thirty five times.

So chin up, writing IS rewriting!

Oh and a note on software... for revisions I now use neo office... it is strong at tracking changes, and for the mac it is free... look at open office for you win or linux based writers

I keep going again and again until I find nothing to change.
When in succeeding drafts I start changing back to the
way it was, I know I'm done.

It's too long, or so the books on marketing novels tell me. It was a first pass.

I'll finish writing it and do a major edit again. Then, I'll hand it out to a few trusted friends for further suggestions on improvement and cuts. Hopefully, when it's all done, it will be respectably close to the preferred word limit and much more enjoyable in its svelte form.

I've long believed in the power of the fresh perspective that time and distance give to rewriting and editing. It also helps to have a terrible memory for your own work. That way it doesn't take that long to get that fresh perspective.

You hack it where it's too thick and where it grows in unshapely
directions and your hacking makes it look wounded. But it grows
back through successive drafts and you cut it again and again and
gradually it takes shape.

I cut boldly, confident that if I cut something I shouldn't, I'll
remember it on the next read-through, and put it back in. I rarely
put anything back in, though.

I always hang on to my prunings. I never know when they will come in handy. Sometimes I edit out something from one point in the story and find later on it works far better in another.

Every time I significantly change a chapter or cut something I'm particularly fond of, I save it as an old version and back them up with the original. It's a habit that's paid off several times already.

And ain't the search function wonderful! I said I rarely
put something back. But I often put something in a different
place. That's another thing that validates the cut-it
impulse for me. You cut it because it's not helping where
it is, and it just might help somewhere else.

this actually means rewriting the damn thing, as it had some serious holes.

Again this is part of the writing process... and at times this is what is needed