You've just finished the first draft of your screenplay, play, novel, etc. and you sigh with relief. Unfortunately you forgot that the editor of your book is....you! Now the editing. YAY! What fun! I am not much of a reader so editing is not my greatest joy in life. I believe editing your own work is harder than editing someone else's. Why? I'm glad you ask.
One I've written a novel, I know what it's going to say, so I have a tendency to skim and overlook because I skim and overlook because I know the material. Did you catch that? Being that it is my material, I am so familiar with it that I read what I believe it states, without wanting to take into consideration that I may have made mistakes. Sometimes it takes several times of re-reading to catch everything. My first novel Angel Falls took at least 13 re-reads before I was satisfied. When I write my short story compilation, Levels, it was a little bit easier because I edited each story as I finished it. I still missed some things.
What am I trying to say? If you can avoid it DON'T EDIT YOUR OWN WORKS!!!! It's time consuming and it will make you extremely paranoid as to just how many mistakes you can catch yourself. I would suggest that if you know someone reliable who will do it for free, then recruit them. I still edit some manuscripts and screenplays. My Wife, Kathy is a wonderful editor and an avid reader. She has a great eye for detail and I trust her with my works. She has recently started editing for other authors as well. She does charge a fee, but you don't expect her to edit everyone else for free do you? :)
When you edit other people's works you have no idea what you're going to get. Here's a few example:
The writer who prefers to describe everything with so much detail that you almost forget important details about their book.
"The majestic Nightingale with the orange beak and claws of ashen grey, perched outside of Jenny's apartment window. Nightingales are rare this time of year because of the migration patterns of the red headed ones. Nightingales are not endangered and come in a lot of different varieties....(continues for four paragraphs).
Unless this is a book on birds...let it go.
The writer who prefers to leave the reader's imagination and you become lost in an instant.
"Jonathan sped down the highway in his car. Alison looked frightened. He looked straight up and saw the bat people chasing him. He lept straight up and managed to catch a hold of Bengar the Bat King's leg. Bengar flew off unaware that he had a passenger. When Bengar landed, Jonathan used his karate to subdue him."
Several important details are left out like: Was the car a convertible? What happened to the car once he lept? How close were the Bat People? Leaping straight up from a moving automobile? What happened to Alison? How EXACTLY did Jonathan use his karate? Bengar couldn't feel Jonathan hanging on? Etc.
The writer who is writing for the sheer joy of it and doesn't care of continuity, the laws of physics, or the reader.
Most of the time, the writer mentioned last will get all kinds of crazy if you try to give them constructive criticism. This is just like the previous example but graduates into the realm of WTF?
When editing someone else's work, you have to have an understanding of the plot, characters, and where the author wants to go in their story. If you can't make heads or tails then neither will the reader. It's up to you to not only decipher (sometimes) a mess, and it is also your responsibility to tell the writer what they are doing wrong. It's best to read it over once before agreeing to edit so you can see just how big of a job it might be. Don't be afraid to tell the author it's incomprehensible. You can be tactful, but if you feel sorry for them, and you go light on the editing then not only are you doing them a disservice, but you are giving yourself a bad reputation as well. Editing Non-Fiction is a lot harder because of all of the fact checking.
Take each work case by case and hopefully you won't get trapped in a sea of crazy. Enail me if you have any questions! Did you catch that?
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