Editing block?

If you wrote it to get through a period of depression, maybe it has served its purpose. Maybe that's all it was meant to do I guess it depends if you like the story. You could always start a new project not connected to your depression. You know, like a fresh start.

Or you just don't like editing. some people don't.

Congratulations on finishing the complete novel!

Blocks can come in all different forms.

Question- have you had some time away from it? Writing can be so emotional as we pour our hearts out, that sometimes editing or responding to feedback is too difficult to do without first having some distance from the piece.

If that is not the problem, then can you elaborate a bit?

For example, do you agree with your Beta, but you just don't see how to fix the suggestions?

Or, do you question your Beta's feedback? In your post you mention tightening the prose, but that your Beta is recommending a complete overhaul, so is this difference part of your struggle too?

I just want to encourage you that having completed the full piece is something to be so proud of, and that there are so many different types or layers of editing that ends up happening, you just need to get where you can evaluate suggestions and see them. But sometimes we only see them when others point them out.

Hang in there, and congratulations again!

I am sure you will get some great responses here and hopefully feel encouraged and ready to begin edits when the time is right.

ETA: I see I crossed posted with HistorySleuth, so other responses are already starting- isn't AW a great place? !

I hate the editing process. For me, it is slow and boring. I have learned to edit as I go and make my writing as good as I can so that there are less things to worry about later. And I don't always trust the feedback I get which can make it confusing.

I also think you have to decide how much you trust your beta. How direct were the comments? How specific? Sometimes people will tell you that a certain scene isn't working or the beginning is too slow. That kind of feedback is easier to work with than a more general tighten up your prose or make your dialog sound more realistic.

Try editing in small intervals like for an hour or even a half hour. Take it one chapter at a time. Maybe you can edit a chapter a week. You can't fix the whole book at once. I don't believe in editing block. I just think it is a different kind of stuck.

You also have to ask yourself what your goals are at this stage. Do you want to get the book published or was this something you just did to help your depression? You might not even know for sure at this point. The first novel I wrote was really to prove to myself that I could write and finish a book. It was my practice novel. It wasn't that bad. It was the best I could do at the time, and because of it my writing improved. If you want to publish you will need to edit and polish. If publishing is not your goal for this book, just know that the next one will be better, and you can address some of the issues with your writing as you move onto another project.

I dunno, gettingby. I'm totally with you on the editing sucks thing. Writing is like being able to do magic. Editing is like taking all the courses and practicing the tricks to be a stage magician.

But James Ritchie said something that resonated for me. It went to the effect of, "If you're going to write it, finish it. Then polish it and submit it. Otherwise, you're building bad habits and you don't learn." (Okay, that's really paraphrased, but you get the idea.) So, c.m.n., I would recommend you finish editing your book. Even if it turns out that it's not publishable (and maybe that's only yet), there's things to be learned from editing. I'm finishing up editing my first novel, and I've learned a ton.

I don't know about trusting your beta, but there is the issue of agreeing with them. I toss stuff out to betas, and they can agree or not. It's their book. I try not to get my ego involved, because really, I'm there to help them. I don't expect anyone to agree with me all the time, so it's perfectly all right to disagree with your beta.

Perhaps what you need, c.m.n., is more betas. Critting someone else's book is an excellent way to turn on the editing light in your brain. There's some good stickies on plotting in the basic writing forums and the novel forum that you should read if you haven't already. If nothing else, read Guthrie's writing tips at the top of the BW forum. This would give you a place to start editing, other than just correcting misspelled words and polishing your punctuation. And also, you would get several eyes on your work and build consensus as to what it needs.

There's kind of a macro and a micro approach to editing. The first focuses on plot and themes, deciding what should be in your story. The second looks at how well you've pulled off the story you told, and focuses on cutting unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and moments that don't move the plot forward or develop the characters. Sometimes, things need to be expanded for your readers to understand them. Evaluate show vs. tell for effectiveness in given circumstances.

I don't like it. It is sooo not magic. But I love the result. And you don't have to take it slow. You need to quit when your brain is fried, but the harder you work at it, the sooner it will be done (within reason). I usually work it as hard as I can stand, because I really want to get through this so I can go write something again.

I'm one of those sick, horrible people who generally enjoys the editing process.

I have borderline OCD, just enough to get me in trouble with fractally-interlocking tasks. (One of my favorite jobs was sitting for four hours at a stretch in front of a 3X magnifier and a lightbox, mixing precise Ilfachrome dyes and using a 0000 sable brush to fix .5mm diameter or less holes in Disney film cells. No kidding. OCD bliss.)

So I actually get a kick out of taking something rough and refining it word by word. I even tend to write that way, re-editing a chapter just to get the 'feel' of it before I charge into the next chapter. I keep loads of notes on a separate file, because I won't pretend my memory is strong. It makes my writing process sometimes slower than it should be, but it usually leaves me with better-than-average writing.

I get frustrated when I'm editing to someone else's directions, and I feel they might not understand the work. But some of my best writing has come about through creative compromises, too.

C.M.N. - chapters are your friends. Seriously. The worst tasks are made better by splitting them into manageable bites. Editing a 140K mms down to 95K is daunting. Editing sixty-some chapters a 2K chapter at a time is a nice mental trick. Eventually it gets done.

+1 on getting a second opinion. A few more triangulation points may help. I use three main beta readers. Each of them picks up on different flaws. They're all hard on me, but that's why I beg them for help. Because sometimes we're just too close to our stories.

Most "blocks" writing or editing, are caused by not planting you rear end in a chair and doing the work.

This is most often because it's "hard" or because you don't "like" it.

Writing rules! It's such an amazing avenue for venting emotions or escaping into worlds of our own.

Editing....meh....it's like changing the air filter on those emotional vents and working in the sewage treatment plant of that world of your own that you just built.

I have two guesses:

1. You're not interested in your story any more. You're not in the same mindset as when you wrote it and it doesn't resonate with you any more.

2. You think it's already great. You are afraid to make any changes because you might make it worse. You are a natural writing genius and any attempt to apply any kind of logic to your inspired work will take the spark out of it.

If it's 1, I don't know, maybe ditch the project and start a new one. If you aren't motivated, it's going to be hard, unless there is some external pressure to finish. It's possible it was just a therapeutic exercise.

If it's 2, you gotta buckle down and edit. Chances are, it's not good enough as is. If your fears are justified, and the spark goes out of it, it won't be good enough after either, but then nothing is lost but time. Keep a copy of your first draft and you can always go back to it. If your fears don't come true, then it has a chance to be good.

It's totally possible! For me, it was rooted in the fact that no matter how many rewrites I did, it was still not perfect, I still opened it up and saw so much that needed to be changed. The anxiety completely paralysed me.

It didn't help that well meaning people kept telling me it was "fine" and I was "being too picky". I didn't want it to be fine, I wanted it to be the very best it was within my personal powers to make it. Cue anxiety.

For me, what worked was setting it aside completely. I did low pressure writing that was not intended for any kind of publication. I did some unrelated MOOCs. I started writing a game. I abandoned all writing websites and books. I used sensory and educational activities with my boy as an outlet for creativity. I told myself that just having written was an achievement, even if I never did anything with it. I lifted all the pressure from myself.

And then one day, I was felt to sit down and start doing a couple of hours a day editing again, without stress, without freezing. The weaknesses were still there, but now it felt empowering and enjoyable to work on them. I looked forward to the time I could devote to polishing my story.

I hope you work through the block, too. Be kind to yourself. In the end, treating yourself with kindness is the best advice I can give. You've written a novel. That is amazing.

(I also started seriously writing, as opposed to purely hobby writing, to get through a major bout of depression, fwiw. Final editing means letting go, to some extent, and maybe that's partly why it's hard for both of us.)

Take your brain off the big stuff by looking at the small stuff. One sentence at a time. What does this sentence actually say?. Does it say what I mean it to say? Is there superfluous fluff in there?

etc.

You'll need to do that, most likely, in any case, and starting there may help you catch on to larger matters that may exist.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot: Save your first draft as it is, permanently. Make a copy, and work on that. Never, ever, only have a single copy of your work. By working on a secondary copy, you should be able to get around the fear of messing up your original.

caw

For me editing block only comes when something's not quite right with the big picture, and one or more big chunks have to be rewritten. Those big chunks are a bitch, because I think subconsciously, you're always thinking about the myriad trickle-down effects those changes are going to have. You tend to second guess yourself a lot when that happens, at least I do.

My best results come when I go to the section that doesn't work and nuke-nuke-nuke it completely off of the page. You may feel inclined to leave particularly stunning bits of description or important bits of development. Don't. For me, I've found it's best to make one deep cut at the start and then approach the section like you're writing it fresh.

Once things are underway, I think it's okay to go back to an earlier draft and grab fragments you like, so long as you do it sparingly. Invariably, the results are always better. Once you're staring at a blank space and 100% committed to the change, things just flow easier.

C.M.N., sounds like you could be on the right track splitting the chapters into separate files. Sometimes those little workflow details have a big psychological impact. Just don't be afraid to nuke and entire chapter if you have to. Report back and tell us how it works!

CathleenT said:

I dunno, gettingby. I'm totally with you on the editing sucks thing. Writing is like being able to do magic. Editing is like taking all the courses and practicing the tricks to be a stage magician.

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I've seen books with potential turned into brilliant, wonderful books by good editing. There's magic there, surely?

Editing well is difficult. And it's a skill we don't all have, which is why some people find it so dull and confusing. But it's worth doing if you want your book to be the best it can be.

I don't know about trusting your beta, but there is the issue of agreeing with them.

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Some betas are great: others, not so much. It helps to have several, if you can find them, as it adds weight to their opinions if they all agree on a particular point.

Perhaps what you need, c.m.n., is more betas. Critting someone else's book is an excellent way to turn on the editing light in your brain.

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Yes, and yes. Great advice.

There's kind of a macro and a micro approach to editing. The first focuses on plot and themes, deciding what should be in your story. The second looks at how well you've pulled off the story you told, and focuses on cutting unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and moments that don't move the plot forward or develop the characters.

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When revising or editing, work from big to small. Deal with the big things first, and work your way down to checking punctuation and such. And don't try to do everything in a single pass: it can be done, but it makes the job much harder, and if you're already struggling with it then be easier on yourself.

Read through your manuscript and make notes on what's wrong, and what needs to be changed.

Then look at those notes and see if it's all required, or if making Big Change One smooshes the need to make Slightly Smaller Change Two.

Then go back into your manuscript and make the changes required.

Set it aside for a couple of weeks.

Read through it again, looking for big and medium changes.

When you're certain the plot and structure are working, make your characters stronger, sort out the dialogue and descriptions, strengthen your settings and so on.

Once you've done that, then you go back in and check your grammar, your punctuation, spelling and so on.

Give it a final check by reading through it backwards, one page at a time. This switches off the part of you which follows the story and makes you focus on the small stuff: it's amazing how many errors you'll pick up if you do this.

Stick to the "read through, make notes, read your notes, then make your changes" format at all times--if you find it works for you. Most of the writers I've coached through this find it makes things much easier, as it breaks the huge, wilderness-feeling of revising a whole book into more manageable chunks. But you might find it's too formal for you, in which case, find your own way.

Filigree said:

I'm one of those sick, horrible people who generally enjoys the editing process.

I have borderline OCD, just enough to get me in trouble with fractally-interlocking tasks. (One of my favorite jobs was sitting for four hours at a stretch in front of a 3X magnifier and a lightbox, mixing precise Ilfachrome dyes and using a 0000 sable brush to fix .5mm diameter or less holes in Disney film cells. No kidding. OCD bliss.)

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I would love that job.

You lucky thing.

So I actually get a kick out of taking something rough and refining it word by word. I even tend to write that way, re-editing a chapter just to get the 'feel' of it before I charge into the next chapter.

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This can work well if you're dealing with small stuff as you edit, but for some writers it can cause problems with the big stuff: because you'll have the feeling that you've already edited so there can't be any major issues. But if it works for you, keep doing it.

I keep loads of notes on a separate file, because I won't pretend my memory is strong. It makes my writing process sometimes slower than it should be, but it usually leaves me with better-than-average writing.

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I'm beginning to think we're twins.

Beyond what have already recommended, I found that change of media helps a lot. For example, I found a lot that needs to be edited when I change the reading media from computer to kindle. I use my computer to write and work on the first pass of editing, and for some reason, I no longer see what needs to be done. Actually I start to see what I "want" to see instead of what is actually written. Change to Kindle provides a fresh perspective. You can do that with paper too (if you normally read on computer). Didn't believe it when I first read the trick, but it really helps.

I think putting it aside for another month or two could be helpful. Focus on different writing or other interests. A fresh set of eyes could make all the difference.

For me, editing is about as fun as getting punched in the face. With a screwdriver.
The fact that you have editing block is totally normal.

You have to take a break from it. You need to be in the mood to edit or else you miss everything.

c.m.n. said:

I really can't tell you why I'm struggling, because I don't know why.

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My opinion? You just wrote your first novel. You're probably new to the craft of writing, and don't know how to edit. People tend to hate what they can't do well.

My suggestion? Hang out in SYW. A lot. Critique the work of others. And pay attention to the remarks of other, more experienced writer's critiques. Also, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is a good book; buy it, if you can.

I think a lot of writers struggle with editing, even experienced writers.

Reading your first post reminded me of myself about 18 months ago or so. I hated editing, mostly because I didn't know what needed changing. But also because the idea of changing significant portions of my hard work sounded horrible. But you have to learn to let go because you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to telling the story only you can tell.

Nobody has ever written a perfect first draft. If your beta reader is pointing something out, it's for a good reason.

Listen to your beta readers (and do get more than one). I'd bet good money that another beta reader will point out similar flaws in your draft. You'll get to a point where you realize it's not them, it's you. And that's a good thing.

But here are some things to think about:

1. What do you want to do with this story of yours? If you wrote it to help you get through a bad period in your life, perhaps it has served its purpose?

2. If you do have serious considerations for making your work a consumable work, then you're going to have to learn how to self-edit.

3. Put it away for a month or two and work on something completely different. Get your mind to move on. When you return to this novel, you'll be surprised at how bad it really is.

4. Learn how to self-edit. If commas are something you know nothing about, or if active vs passive means nothing to you, learn. Learn from beta readers who do know about writing. Learn from the multiple of books that are out there. I know the temptation is there to let someone else simply point out mistakes, but only when you learn the correct way will it make it easier for you to write first drafts in the future.
The more you know about writing, the better writer you will be and the fewer drafts you'll end up going through.