Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Over-Editing

It's easy to under-edit and send out work that isn't ready.  A beginner's mistake.  We're anxious, excited to let our creations loose.

Once we gain a handle on our impulses, however, over-editing becomes a problem.  We sit on things too long, trying for a perfection no work has ever achieved.  We listen to every bit of feedback and incorporate it, no matter how contradictory.  We lose our way, and the writing isn't the same... it's worse.

We writers work our butts off to make our stories and poems seem seamless.  We often complain about how many drafts we've gone through or edits we've done.  But, below that whine of the overworked, is the boast of the immensely dedicated.  We want other people to know how hard we try.  Heck, some even want to foster a pure and constant jealousy among fellow writers.  I'm on draft twelve, but it's nice you're on four, so... quaint.

I partly blame universities with MFA programs for the over-edits.  Editing is an extremely important skill to a writer... one that can be taught.  Programs emphasise editing, sometimes to the detriment of other valuable skills because it's easier to teach.  They make students use the amount of revision as a measure of how things are progressing, how they're progressing.  If pages redone is the major measuring stick instructors hand students, how do you think they will continue to measure success during the "in-progress" phase after the degree?
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So, I encourage you to break the habit.  Edit vigorously, yes.  More than once, certainly.  But, when beta readers/your agent/Mr. Snuffles (your cream-colored rabbit with the one floppy ear) are telling you to submit... do it!  Don't seek impossible perfection, don't think five more rounds of revision is more impressive... just go.

And then tell me about it.  I'll cheer with you.

Do you over-edit?  How do you know when it's enough?

8 comments:

  1. One of my first critique partners was an overeditor. Her book was great, but she'd been working on it for YEARS. She'd enter it in contests and win and we'd work on perfecting it for her. She did get published before the rest of us, but her career has been much slower because she spends years in revisions before putting a book out there. There's a point where you have to stop and move onto the next project!

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    1. I completely agree. Constant revision is a crutch some writers use in order to not move on. If a writer is still revising, there are no rejections coming in for that project.

      If my manuscript was placing in contests, I'd be trying to find a home for it.

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  2. I don't tend to do much editing. When I look back I see that was a huge mistake!

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    1. Thank you. I was wondering if I should do an "editing confessions" post. You make me believe I should.

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  3. I have friends who redo and redo and never send things out on submission. I never thought about the MFA programs and how they teach that. There is always a place where a better word might work but like you said. you can't do that or you'll never finish anything.

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    1. It could just be your friends' perfectionism kicking in. It happens.

      I wish more writers would open up about editing your unique voice out of existence or any real charm from a work. Instead, we see articles and advice about not editing closely enough, or slacking off. Maybe there are fewer articles on over-editing simply because the "too much" line is so fuzzy.

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  4. There's a point when you can edit the life out of a piece. I've read a fair number of pieces over the years in critique groups or for friends, where the first page had been agonized over until it was perfect…and lifeless. I don't think I'm an over-editor anymore, but I used to be! I was even guilty of the one-ups-womanship of number of drafts competitions. Glad to have let that go. The piece is ready when it is. The trick is recognizing that moment and stopping.

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    1. Maybe you should write a blog post sometime on how you can tell a piece is ready.

      Workshops can be wonderful places where each perspective is nurtured and seen for what it is while still furthering the craft. Or they can be black holes of shame and insecurity that squeeze out anything different in your writing style until you sound like part of a machine. I've heard all kinds of stories about workshopping and MFA programs and not nearly all were nice.

      I'm glad you got over your need to one-up others on drafts. That's a tether no one needs!

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