In The Demon's Head: The Untold Fear and Hatred of Editing

In The Demon's Head #30: The Untold Fear and Hatred of Editing

June 8, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome again to another edition of “In The Demon's Head” Today as I usually do on Thursday night's I was looking for exactly how or what I was going to talk about on today's blog because let's face it just hearing some updates about what I've been up too can get boring especially when yours truly isn't living all that interesting to begin with.

But the more I thought about and the more I did it I realized that I wanted to talk to you today about the process of editing. Now I'm willing to bet that most everyone that reads this is either a writer who reads or a reader who writes or wants to. One of the biggest challenges an author faces is to edit his or her work and for most that seems to be a daunting task.

My favorite Author Mr. Stephen King gave a quote once about editing, I love this quote not so much because it came from him but because it sums up how most people feel about editing in general. It goes “When your story is ready for the rewrite cut it to the bone, get rid of every bit of excess fat. To some this is like murdering children but it has to be done.”

When I began editing this past Monday that's what I expected from my writing as well but that's not at all what I got. Instead beginning editing made me realize that it's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. It reunited me with characters I hadn't seen in quite some time in cases because some of the pieces in “More Then Memories” are a bit old but when I got to reunite with them, relearn what made them tick, and help improve it, it made the editing so much easier for me and it gave me a chance to clean everything up and make my writing stronger which is something that I really enjoy.

For me editing is just a way of reinventing yourself and regardless of whatever it is your doing the day you stop learning is the day that whatever it is your doing no longer becomes fun anymore.

Editing also opens a lot of doors to take your writings to a level that you never knew was there. You realize in some cases there's not a lot of information, in some cases there's too many words and just overall you can take a 7.1 manuscript on a 10 scale and bump it up to a 8.7 just by rereading and editing. To me it's amazing at just how much you can miss while your writing.

So now it's your turn if your afraid to edit, stare it in the face and do it. You'll feel great about it and you'll learn from it. If you've had editing horror stories I'd love to hear from you. Drop your stories in the comments section below.

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That will do it for me and this edition of “In The Demon's Head” join me again this Tuesday when I talk about something that all writers have faced, Rejection Frustration. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the Demon's Head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

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