But Jen, don't you mean "The Love, Hate of Editing?" No I do not. Let's face it. Editing is a chore. It's the "Oh you thought you were done with that novel did you?" bite in the butt that comes after the heady joy of finishing the writing of a book or other piece of writing. It is when you return to what you've just finished celebrating about finishing and find that you hate every single word of it (okay, maybe that's just me).

In any case, tragically it is a necessary evil that you should not forgo or skimp on in any way. Publishers can smell an unedited story from a mile away, and if you think that you can do all of the editing yourself, then you've got another think coming. The human brain is a magnificent creation, but sometimes it does things a little too well. You won't believe all the mistakes, repetitions, inconsistencies, etc. that you will miss in your own writing because your brain knows how it is supposed to be.

And if you think that one round of editing will catch everything, or at least enough to make your story presentable, you are just plain wrong. After about five rounds of edits, I still found a mistake in one of my short stories, so imagine how many I missed in my novel.

Now there is a sad fact that professional editors and copy editors are not cheap or free, and I am particularly lucky to be married to my editor, but don't despair. While a writer friend or contact may not have the time to edit your entire 50,000-100,000 word novel, maybe you can work out a system to edit each others work on a regular basis.

What about the love? Well, here's what I have to say about that: love the fact that editing makes your writing better.

Bottom line: you may hate editing, but you'll hate it more if you never get that big advance from Tor or if your book gets published and someone points out a mistake to you (trust me).

Keep Writing and Edit On
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
Were making better words, all of them, better words...

Today I am hard at work editing, so I offer you three helpful or humorous lists from other writing blogs that have caught my eye, made me think, and/or made me laugh recently.

The first is from The Creative Penn, a blog from author/entrepreneur Joanna Penn. I am following her on Twitter post a writing webinar she partially hosted, and have generally found her advice to be solid and sensible:
Writing and Editing: Five Problems to Avoid in Your First Novel

The second post is from the BookBaby blog. Now BookBaby is a self-publishing service website that is pretty pushy and sends me lots of emails with discounts for self-publishing my books, BUT they also have a blog with pretty good articles that are usually guest written:
10 Mistakes a New Author Makes (And How to Avoid Them)
NOTE: This post refers specifically to writing non-fiction, but I thought that the concepts worked pretty well for writing fiction as well.

The last post included today is my favorite. It is an uplifting bit by L.Z. Marie who recently followed me on Twitter. I don't know too much about her yet, but this post is fantastic:
Yoga for Writers

Keep Writing and Edit On
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words...All of Them, Better Words. (Can't Stop the Editing.)

Usually on this post, I hale to writing, writers, and the written word, but today I was reminded that some things are more important than writing.

Since everyone enjoys a good list:

1. Family - Spending quality time with family is more important than writing (though writing may lead to having more time to spend with them).
2. Friends - Friends are a bit of a double-edged sword, but a friend in need or whom you haven't seen in a while is definitely more important than writing.
3. Charity - Giving of your time and money to those less fortunate than you is more important than writing.
4. Your Health - Keeping yourself healthy and fit is more important than writing.
5. Your Job - Is slightly more important than writing until your full time job is writing.

Keep Writing and Edit On
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again! Witness!

So the other day I broke Rule #1 of Writing. In a flash of creativity, I wrote two stories, one flash fiction and one short story before working on my current unfinished projects. I have often said that doing things like this is a sure-fire way to kill your writing career by having too many stories going at once and not ever finishing anything. However, I forgot the caveat that you really never want to stifle your creativity. Finishing stories is the most important part of writing because stories need endings to be published, and you can't always count on constant, amazing inspiration to see you through something as long as a novel. Sometimes you have to just slog through something to the end and hope that once it's finished you will be inspired to edit and tweak it into the perfect story. But when you do get those moments of divine inspiration, even if they don't relate to your current projects, don't stifle your creativity. At these times it's alright to let go with your writing and see where it takes you, as long as you return to finish those stories for which the inspiration may have faded.

Keep Writing and Edit On
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!