WriYe Blogging Circle: Editing Isn't All That Bad

What’s your plan of attack for editing? Is it a chore for you? Do you enjoy it? What's the hardest thing for you in the editing process?

Bonus:

What's the best and/or worst editing advice you have ever received? 

Editing can be a very daunting task. I tend to get really frustrated once I actually dig into my manuscript and try to fix what needs to be fixed. I guess that would be more of revising. Revision is the biggest pain in my ass to date. I love it and I hate it. 

I love figuring out what needs to be fixed/removed/added in my story. Filling in plot holes and fixing characters are all things that I like...in theory. I guess. I usually read through the entire manuscript first and figure out what needs work. I then rework the outline, make notes on the side of what needs to happen.

After I'm done with that I get into gutting my novel. This is the painful part. Not because the novel is something I worked hard on (it usually is) but because this part is so time consuming and I feel like I'm rewriting everything (though I'm not). Though, in the end, this is where it all comes together and I have something decent to work with. This is where I'm struggling right now with Hourglass. The beginning of my stories are always my hardest and I have to rework them a few times before I'm pleased with it. 

The best editing advise I have ever received is: "Know what you wanted to write." Seems a bit silly right? You should know what you wanted out of the story you've written...but sometimes writers tend to veer off into a whole different kind of novel. That is when the writer needs to decide if the novel they wrote is even better than what they planned, or if the novel they planned is much better than the one they wrote. I tend to lean toward my planned novels. Though, that doesn't mean some good things haven't come out of my out of control novels. 

While they don't venture too far off the path, they do tend to change the mood a bit and sometimes that's okay. Sometimes I find good background information that will help with a plot hole or I find a good dialogue that can work well in a different scene. There are still some little treasures buried in the mess that was created.

Another good piece of advice that goes along with this: "Never delete your drafts." You'll be surprised at what you can pull from a discarded draft. It's also fun to look back from time to time to see that changes that were made and how much it improved over time.