Untangling the knot

 

Photo by Crawford Jolly on Unsplash

 "It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly." - C. J. Cherryh

So, my grand total at the moment is ..... 29050 words - I'm aiming for 80,000 words total, unless the story asks me to go longer. 

That's what someone asked me the other day, was I going for word count or being led by the story.

Some days, the writing goes well and the words flood out, others, I feel good if I manged to get 187 words down. But that's the life of a writer. As I said in my previous post, right now, I'm just shoveling that sand, but when I've finished and the container is as full as it can be, then that's when the hard work begins - the editing!

In all honesty, I'm dreading it. what if I read it and think 'this is rubbish. My character has changed their name 12 times,  I don't know where I am in the story and the spelling, and I've got plot holes my characters have no way of getting out of.' 

Do I just curl up and cry or take it page by page, make my notes and go though it clinically, like a surgeon cutting out a tumour. And then when he's finished, he passes it on to the plastic surgeon who's going to nip and tuck and create something beautiful.

Or I think I prefer the potter scenario, my work in progress is a huge mass of clay and the potter is going to wet their hands and smooth and spin their wheel and create something I never imagined would come out of that raw material. 

I've got my 10 steps to Self-editing success from a workshop led by Lorna Partington - which I'm happy to share if you'd like to see them. And I've also got two wonderful little books by Amy Jones - one on Character - Arcs and Archetypes and the other on Plot - The Art of Story   

And of course there is you too, my fellow writers, editors and readers who will pick me up when I'm collapsed in tears wailing 'It's all a big mess and I can't find the end of my knot and what was I thinking.'  

 But right now, I've got 51,000 words to write first, and then I can begin tackling that knot, but not yet, not yet. 

 I'll end with this lovely positive quote on the power of editing -  The first draft is black and white, editing gives the story color.” Emma Hill

I'd love to hear how you have tackle your editing and any tips. Let me know in the comments or on Facebook.  

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology, Lent devotional and three Flash fiction anthologies. You can find him on Twitter here.