EDITS? LOVE THEM! HATE THEM! – Black Velvet Seductions

I always had a love-hate relationship with edits; I guess we all do. In one and the same time; your edits are the thing you most want to see, you have the expectation that your writing is flawless, and dreading that what you have written has more holes than Swiss cheese. Like it or not we are too close to our work to see the flaws we need the extra eyes to give a clear cynical view of our stories.

So, the day comes, and the e-mail is there from your editor you take a deep breath hoping for a couple of quick fixes. Your heart sinks as alas, the markups look as long as War and Peace. You close the document and spend the next hour flicking between the emotions of, frustration, anger resentment, despair, raging at the heavens, “Am I just wasting my time? Maybe I am not cut out to be a writer” and finally resignation after you have cooled down. “If I am going to be a writer this is how it is.”

What writer has not felt this way at least at some point?

In the cold light of day, you re-open the word document, and after a deep breath, you read the comments. You read your editor’s comments, and they make sense, they are even helpful. You feel a bit silly for making the fuss; you can’t believe some of the simple errors you have missed. You get stuck into your script going over the errors one by one. When you reread the script, to admire all your hard work, you seem a little surprised that it reads a little smoother.

For a new writer, after you have written your script and you have shown it to a few friends, and they have dutifully said nice things edits can be a big shock. Friends tend to see beyond any errors and say nice things because they love you. An editor can be a wake-up call to the reality of your writing standard. The ability to write 100,000 words does not necessarily make for a good story. Editors are there to help, they are not there to be mean, but they do give you their honest opinion, that is what you pay them for.

I would love to hear your experiences of edits.

If you have anything you would like to add or share, I’d love to hear your comments here on the blog, the BVS Facebook page, or my Facebook page. We have a twitter page too, and we are always happy to follow people that follow us.