How much of Editing/Rewriting Should we Allow?

Sometime back, I read in the newspaper that a book I had really liked had the last one third  of the book, practically re-written by the editor of the publishing house. We writers are aware that our books will be edited, and I am sure we all are cool with it. Even the best writers say that they are lost without their editors. An editor’s sharp eyes catch hold of gaps in the plot and highlight the weaknesses and help tighten the story by  trimming the flab.

But  when an editor rewrites the book, I feel that is too much. The editor can make few small  changes, even give suggestions, but just taking hold of someone’s manuscript and reworking on it, without consulting the writer is too much. I suppose some writers are  eager to get their  books published, so they  accept all the conditions by the publishing houses, even conditions they don't like.

I am cool with editing, I know that I am not perfect and I have a tendency to make lots of mistakes which I overlook and I am extremely happy when my editors suggest changes and wait for me to incorporate them in my stories and books. But just making major  changes without letting me know about them is something I am not comfortable with.

I feel when our stories and books are rewritten by the editor, somewhere along the way, the writer’s  unique voice and style  get submerged  in the editorial interference, as the rewrite will bring with it the editor’s style of writing. Maybe I am wrong, and this is just my personal belief.

What do you all think? Shouldn’t an editor suggest changes to the writer and wait for the writer to work through them, or should the editor just go ahead and rework on the portions that they feel are weak without giving the writer a chance to make the changes. How much editing do you think we writers should allow? Should we silently allow major rewrites of our book by  the editor, even if we don’t like those changes?

PS. The Blogger technical problem removed most of the comments from my previous post. I just want  to thank each one of you for visiting my blog and sharing your lovely thoughts. I truly appreciate your comments and the discussions the comments generate.

Self - Publishing versus Traditional Publishing

Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing few books that were self published by the authors. Reading the books changed my perception of self publishing. My initial view was that books that were turned down by publishers were self published by the authors who were unable to wait for the long time it took to  encounter a publisher willing to invest  time, money and energy on them.

I was also under the impression that self published books would not be of a good quality, both in the literary sense : plot, character, grammar, and story line and that the quality of the books: paper, printing and book covers would not be good. The books I reviewed were of a superior quality in each and every way. As a reviewer, I did find few mistakes in the plot structure of one book and felt that the author had  been in a hurry to end it, and the length of  the other book was too long. Perhaps as writers we tend to get too harsh and critical, not just of other  writer’s books, but also of our own.

I did wonder why editors of publishing houses had turned them down. The books were good. With a little bit of rewriting and editing  the books would have been great. I  indulged in a bit of pop analysis to uncover the reason why both the books missed the traditional publishing bus.

One thing I realized  is that it’s next to impossible for publishers to publish every book that lands at their doorstep. Many times they have to turn down books that they like, because they feel there will be no market for such books, or they have done similar books earlier, or the book is ahead of its time.  In such  scenarios  the authors have no other option but to self-publish.

I am not sure if I am right in my suggestions. But here they are. I feel the first and foremost thing  someone  taking the self published route should invest in is few  critique partners who can catch the initial knots in the story and help shape it up with critical and valuable feedback.

After the final rewrite  the  author opting for the self published route should invest in a professional edit. A professional  editor will catch all the mistakes that crop up in the plot structure which the editor of a traditional publishing house would normally have done.. He or she can spot the weak links in the story and pay detailed attention to  character growth and help tighten the plot. The editor will  also take care of   grammar, punctuation and tense.

This is just my amateur analysis, I am no expert. I now have only admiration for self published authors who choose to take the difficult route to publishing. These authors have so much faith in their stories that they are willing to shoulder the burden of editing, publishing  and marketing onto their own shoulders. What about you all? What do you think of self publishing? Any advice you would give to authors seeking that route? Would you opt for it? Please share your views and feelings on self publishing.

Editing Techniques for our Manuscripts

The worst part of writing is, when we start doing the edits, before we query or submit our books for publication. I received two pieces of  editing advice. I ignored the first one “Edit every second  word in your manuscript.” This advice would  actually work well for me, because my editor’s constant grouse against me is that my stories and books  are too long.

The second piece of advice I was given is “Edit like a step mother. Be cruel.” This advice was one I detested. I have a  soft  heart. I  prefer  not to kill my words. But, eventually I end up killing them. For the greater good.

 I feel like crying when I have to edit my stories and books. Many of the scenes I had lovingly created and painstakingly described in detail  in the initial drafts are  deleted by the final draft  because I realize  that they are weighing the story down. Editing is one place where we have to be cruel  towards our words to be kind to our  readers. It’s our cruelty that does justice to our stories.

        The technique  I follow  while going over every scene is:

1. I mull over the fact  whether  a scene is crucial to the story or not. I have realized that I have a tendency to add scenes that do not add momentum to the story.

2. Whether it pushes the story forward. Some scenes are what we call plain explanation. A reader really doesn’t care whether a character  is wearing  a black or a red tee shirt with lace or border. But if the tee shirt will end up doing something extraordinary; like saving the character, then by all means we can add the tiny details.

3. Does a particular scene give some information about a character, or his/her motive? If a scene is a harbinger of what the character will undergo at a later stage, then its worth retaining.

4. Does it   give  a little twist to the  story? Something that makes the reader sit up is worth holding on to.

5. Does it explain something important? If the layout of the house is explained in detail, then it better be important; it can be the escape route the character takes.

6. Does a scene I am describing now, come into  centre stage at a later point in the book. Is it tied up in some way to the crucial climax?

7. Does a scene weigh the story down? This is very important as we tend to go overboard  on some scenes; describing in detail the bit of spinach/lettuce  stuck to the character’s teeth is a waste of time. Will the spinach/lettuce save the character’s life or  assist him in some way? If its going to make him a butt of jokes, then we can keep the scene. 

8. Does the reader need to know this? Is this information something the reader can do without? If the reader can bypass this chunk of information, then its time to axe it. 

9. As a reader would I like to read this paragraph? Will this paragraph/description bore or interest me? Depending on the answer I retain the scene or description. 

These are crucial questions to ask ourselves when we edit. Over time we instinctively know what to delete and what to retain. Editing skills develop slowly and only if we become objective towards our own work can we do justice to it.  We can develop and polish our editing skills by  going through books by our favourite authors and bestsellers. We can study the editing techniques in those books. 

Nowadays whenever I read a book, I not just look for plot twists, and sub-plots, character arcs and conflicts, I also see the way the book has been edited. Of how the scenes flow one into another.

What kind of attitude do you adopt when you start editing? Are you harsh and cruel?  Or are you soft and kind? What makes you decide whether to retain a particular scene or to chop it? Any editing  secrets that  you would like to share with us? 

        

        

Editing Tips to the Rescue

Editing for me is the toughest part of writing. I  hate to do the edits for several reasons. One of them is because I  detest deleting  words from my MS.  I feel like crying  when my editor deletes paragraphs. I am fine with few words here and there. More often than not after my edits the word count goes into an overdrive.

The last time I edited a story I ended up adding a side character and increasing the length of the story by  four hundred words. Needless to say my editor was tearing her hair out and asked for the older version which she would carry in the newspaper with just one illustration.

But with time, extensive reading and research and courtesy the only workshop I attended, I realized that  editing is responsible for a polished manuscript. From a foe, editing has now become my friend. I started the edits for my current WIP with  mixed feelings. Would the word count go up or down?  The first lot of words to go were  what  William Faulkner calls ‘writer’s darlings’ or the  common modifiers I  generously sprinkle my manuscript with. I have a penchant for words  like ‘ very, extremely, really, seriously, absolutely.’ Faulkner’s advice to writers is  “to kill their darlings.” This  decreased  the word count substantially. Strunk and White in "The Elements of Style" refer to them as  “The leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words." I  eliminated  only the  modifiers that  I felt weighed down my writing.

After that I heeded Mark Twain’s advice : “When you catch an adjective, kill it.  No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them, then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” Many adjectives were  sent packing at Mark Twain's advice, as were the silly and juvenile similies I had dumped during the initial drafts.

As I reread my manuscript, I realized  there were many repetitions that had no business being there. I had no qualms deleting these. As the manuscript is written over a period of time we often forget what  we have said earlier, hence the repetitions. The parts where I felt I was suffocating my reader with too much back story have been kept to a minimum. This was difficult as giving back story is a personal favourite.  

                       

As the word count decreased and the writing became a little crisper and tighter, my smile widened. For the first time in my life after my edits, words  fell  like leaves in autumn.

The paragraphs where I was telling rather than showing  will take  the longest time.  I consider it a hangover of my school days where we had to write long essays. While writing longer stories I tend to  fall into the tell and not show pattern. Though it’s something that we constantly hear it’s also the easiest thing to overlook.  I am currently tackling  these long passages that will  require a lot of rethinking  and effort.

Trying to edit the scenes with dialogues was  easy as I followed the advice that  dialogue should either build character or advance the action. The longer dialogues have given way to shorter ones, and the boring bits chopped. Then there are the grammatical and punctuation errors to remedy. I  am leaving the sentence structure modification for the last.

Do you think I am going about my edits the right way? Is there something I have overlooked, something that can further improve my WIP?  How do you all handle your edits? Do you have any editing secrets that you would like to share?

Sending the Inner Editor on a Long Holiday

The ever present, ever cautious, constantly interfering   inner editor is a nuisance we writers can do without. The inner editor  which  is  our inherent, intrinsic and individual sense of right or wrong can be detrimental to the process of writing. It can interfere  with our plot, mess up the structure of our stories, disturb our scenes, upset the character’s dialogues and POV, send the character arc off kilter,  and throw our writing rhythm into a tizzy.

I don’t know about others, but I am constantly writing with the ghost of my conscience peeping over my shoulder, its face contorted with disgust, its shrill voice screaming a flurry of instructions like a  mother warning a child on the cusp of a huge tantrum. Almost all the instructions start with “ don’t do that, why have you written this, mellow that down, how can a school girl think like this, how can you think that about a teacher, that’s not appropriate behaviour for a ten year old Indian school girl/boy, that boy is not a role model,  this is just not right.”

Unfortunately for me, the two middle grade books I am currently working on  are based  in a school. So whatever happens, well.. it happens inside a classroom, between students, between teachers and students, teachers and the Principal and between the Principal and the parents. 

In this scenario my stuck up inner editor needs to go on a long  holiday, preferably paid one way, leaving me in peace to write the first draft  my way. If I were to listen to my  sensible  inner editor, I would never be able to do justice to the theme of my books. School children are going to be naughty, they are going to play pranks, bully other students, trouble and irritate the teachers, cheat in tests. I can’t afford to have angels as students. Most students are not angels, and angels may not make interesting students.

After several showdowns, angry words and sullen silences, I sent my inner editor on a long holiday. I needed to write the first draft my way. Packing its bags, so that it did not return with any flimsy excuse,  I waved a cheerful and excited goodbye to my  over concerned inner editor and celebrated  the joyous event by going berserk with the plot, theme and  the situations. I enjoyed this trial separation, it gave me the much needed breathing space to write the  books my way.

I feel  that I am able to really do justice to the theme, remain true to the souls of the stories (which is pranks and mischief) by not over thinking about the consequences of  my character’s actions. Children will be mischievous, and should be  mischievous. That’s the joy of childhood. And it’s just a book I am writing, not a code of conduct for children. 

I am sure when my  inner editor returns, it will  probably die of shock. But  it’s a risk I  am willing to take.

Have you battled with your own inner editors while working on your books? How do you deal with a moralistic inner editor who is driving you up the wall with it’s  strong sense of ethics. Please tell us, I am sure we all can benefit from your experiences with your personal inner editors.