#4 - Writing Torture - Editing-Addiction

Rain is coming. Soggy conditions and cold temperatures promote indoor activities, which means I’ll focus on writing and researching for the next couple of days. I’ll also give attention to marketing, social media posts, book-keeping, and we can’t forget, oh joy…editing.

A while back, I read the first of several articles that claim well-known writers publish books with an average of one error for every twelve pages. I'm not supplying an academic citation since this information has circulated so often that it’s now a common claim, but it gives the rest of us hope.

We live in a world where professionals and artists are vulnerable to human error, no matter the level of expertise or quality assurance. Mistakes happen, and the most intelligent people among us aren’t immune to making stupid mistakes – that’s the beauty and the curse inflicted upon humanity.

Developing a story with quality isn’t easy. Writers build characters, places, and life-stories into existence, but it’s editing that breathes vibrant meaning into the words. Magic happens as you tidy literary clutter while adding word-brightening bling through research and other details, so you shouldn't short-change the editing phase. If it's difficult for you, then better your skills through public or private study sessions that can improve your craft, but don’t let an editing-addiction sabotage the progress of your writing.

When I edit, I can drive myself nuts by rewriting the same sentence twenty ways. Setting aside a manuscript to view it with new eyes a few days or weeks down the line is a smart and purposeful editing strategy, but we need to know how to walk away from a manuscript that’s gone through changes after a conclusive edit. If we lack the ability to take our hands off it, then we’ve got a problem. A polished manuscript is ready to share, unless clear issues pop up.

I can edit the crap out of a polished manuscript, whether needed or not. The icing on a writer’s cake is forever blemished, it’ll need one more touch-up before it’s shared. Writers are artists plagued with a terrible sense in perpetuity that their project isn’t complete, but it’s important to know this is common-creative-torture for most artists.

You bang your head against the wall while promising to tackle the next project instead of staying on the same one for too long, then you find yourself staring at the computer screen as the cursor blinks in the same place you’ve re-visited thirty times while denying the next project your creative energy. 

Sometimes we must take our hands off a project, bless it, then back away for the last time. No, I’m not saying to ignore manuscript issues that need attention, and I’m not saying you should pretend glaring mistakes within a published book don’t exist. I'm saying it's good to know the difference between constructive editing that tightens and hones your storyline vs. non-productive editing that makes no solid change. Your time and energy can be better spent elsewhere. 

Once you stop editing and allow a manuscript to morph into a publication, you’ll need to prepare for reader feedback because they’re going to inform you that they’ve found about one error for every twelve pages. Then, the post-publication edits begin, and that process is a different beast all together.  

Regardless of the stage of writing or editing you're now enjoying, I wish you a happy and healthy process!

Lana R. Black

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Enjoy reading; I look forward to getting your feedback: Surviving the Threshold