by
Kathryn Elizabeth Jones
 |
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Gross.
And though I realize that the best smelling bathrooms have been disinfected, and that my blinds look better when they are clean, and yes, my refrigerator even smells better after I've cleaned it, there's just something about editing that I hate.
Maybe it's the 'priceless words' that I must take out that don't contribute to the plot.
Or maybe it's the anxiousness I feeling getting my book 'into print'.
Perhaps I have readers anxious to read it, and some critiquer is taking an awful long time getting the book back to me
Maybe I hate editing because I can't edit just once, but find myself editing multiple times before I even hand it off to other proof readers or editors who may not like what I've written and suggest that I fix some things.
Or it could be I hate editing because I love writing, or prefer working on the right side of the brain rather than on the left.
Could be all of these reasons, and more. But just because I hate editing or having others edit for me, that doesn't mean that I don't do it.
There's something magical that happens to a well-edited piece of work. I'm not talking about a book that's been too edited, the kind where everything has been cut and trimmed to a quarter of an inch above the scalp. I'm talking about a book that's edited so that the writer's words do more than sit on the paper, yawning. The sort of words that flutter around and land on your shoulder for a spell, before they take off again to the mountain tops or the deep valley. I'm talking about a book made beautiful by the editing that's been done, not cursed by it.
Hopefully, I'm talking about my books, although I know that after multiple drafts someone might find a misspelled word.
Because I don't like perfection, either, and I don't think any book out there is so perfectly constructed, so perfectly in tune with God or ghosts or the underworld, that a few mistakes haven't crept in.
Yet another reason I hate editing, but continually do it because editing is part of being that awesome sort of writer others keep talking about.
And what writer doesn't want that?
Previous articles written by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones on WWBB: 5 Ways to Promote Your Book that You May Not have Thought of
Hopefully, I'm talking about my books, although I know that after multiple drafts someone might find a misspelled word.
Because I don't like perfection, either, and I don't think any book out there is so perfectly constructed, so perfectly in tune with God or ghosts or the underworld, that a few mistakes haven't crept in.
Yet another reason I hate editing, but continually do it because editing is part of being that awesome sort of writer others keep talking about.
And what writer doesn't want that?
Previous articles written by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones on WWBB: 5 Ways to Promote Your Book that You May Not have Thought of
