Editing your story.

It does not matter if it is a short story or a whole book, all written work requires an edit.

The first edits should be done by the writer until the story is to their satisfaction. Writing here, with time limits sometimes imposed, we only get time for a quicky edit.

I did a story some time ago here on ATS - PURE LOVE

I have now edited this story and will use it as a Forward in a book I have started. Editing is often subtle, sometimes just a few words are changed, sometimes whole paragraphs and chapters are inserted or deleted.

If any one would like to compare the original story with the edited story, I am happy to put the edited version up, just to help those that may need it or for me to learn from others. There are many great writers here and many still learning the craft.

I am loathe to put it up without some responses, it could be seen as, I don't know, something bad or tasteless or something along those lines.

Is there any interest?

P

a reply to: pheonix358

That's very generous of you. Yes, I would love to see both stories, I'm always keen to improve my writing and any help would be most welcome.
Plus, I'm a curious sort!
Looking forward to it,

B x

I read on a writing advice forum that you should always do edits and rewrites focused on major elements, one at a time. So, you might do one rewrite/edit concentrating solely on one character at a time, or one focusing on the plot by itself, etc. You should also keep a folder with everything you edit out and make sure you make it clear where that material came from so you can play with it later on, just in case you realize there was something fantastic you really didn't want to lose that you snipped.

originally posted by: ketsuko
I read on a writing advice forum that you should always do edits and rewrites focused on major elements, one at a time. So, you might do one rewrite/edit concentrating solely on one character at a time, or one focusing on the plot by itself, etc. You should also keep a folder with everything you edit out and make sure you make it clear where that material came from so you can play with it later on, just in case you realize there was something fantastic you really didn't want to lose that you snipped.

There are as many ways to edit as there are to write. Some people extensively plan a book, some just start writing. What works for one person will be useless to another.

I would never edit a character at a time because it is critical, to me, to get the interplay between the characters right and that involves more than a single character. I am always very wary when someone says, 'this is how you need to do it.' It is more likely correct if they said, 'this is how I do it.'

When editing I save the file with e01 after the file name, for the first edit. At some stage you decide if it is all trash or if you want to save some elements. That works for me, saving it all to another file would interrupt my process far too much.

Work out what works for you as opposed to what works for a blogger.

P