What's Your Biggest Editing Challenge?

[Olly Buckle]

Don't talk to me about commas. I've read books about them, and written articles based on it to try and help me internalise it, and still I look at them and think, "Is that right, or not? I don't know."

PS, This is one of the joys of making videos of my short stories, no punctuation at all

[ScifiWriter]

I often wonder how many commas it takes to write a novel. I use a professional grammar / punctuation service to edit my novels and spend half my time correcting commas. I do, however, find that an occasional extra comma makes a sentence more readable, and so, I leave it in. There is no shame in one too many commas.

As far as real edits, I am terrible. The stories all get longer every time I edit them. It's as if my damned keyboard just keeps finding more story to add. I even threw out one keyboard and replaced it, only to find that the new one came with even more words in it. I am doomed.

[Takeaway Junkie]

I often wonder how many commas it takes to write a novel. I use a professional grammar / punctuation service to edit my novels and spend half my time correcting commas. I do, however, find that an occasional extra comma makes a sentence more readable, and so, I leave it in. There is no shame in one too many commas.

As far as real edits, I am terrible. The stories all get longer every time I edit them. It's as if my damned keyboard just keeps finding more story to add. I even threw out one keyboard and replaced it, only to find that the new one came with even more words in it. I am doomed.

I'm on my second draft at the moment and spend an age on a chapter, adding, deleting, adding again, then adding another sentence or two to change the narrative slightly, it is annoying yet wonderful at the same time.

Does that even make sense?

I am finding, though, entering back into the world i created is fun and the editing is much more enjoyable with that mindset

[indianroads]

I'm taking a break after completing my second editing pass. I'm cheap, so I usually run through about eight passes before the MS goes to my editor (less for her do do = less time = less money).

I use excel spread sheets to track things like plot points (looking for holes), along with descriptions, character phrasing, and such. It helps, but editing remains a chore.

[Djwadsa]

What is the best way forward for editing ? should you do it your self or look for another party to do it ? what are the benefits for both ?

[Olly Buckle]

What is the best way forward for editing ? should you do it your self or look for another party to do it ? what are the benefits for both ?

Depends a bit on you. I reckon you should certainly do at least a first edit yourself. Most people miss something, but practice makes you better and the better the work you pay to have edited the less time the editor has to spend on it, so the less it costs you; look at what Indian Roads said a couple of posts back. Are you ready to publish and go commercial? Or are you still practicing? There is a lot of room to improve for most people by reading through the crits. here, both of your own work and other people's, and plenty of ideas to pick up in writing discussion. I don't know how far you have come, but it always irks me a bit thinking someone else might improve on what I have written, I should have thought of that. On the other hand we all do things like writing a word twice twice and being blind blind to it