Editorial Advice

I have no idea how to edit. I know this, because every time I have to do it, I end up staring at a page of words and not knowing what to do with them. I've read a few books of being a writer and most of them have a chapter on editing, but I think you're supposed to have picked up the skills that will make this easy in the preceding chapters.

Somewhere in my brain there is a disjoint that doesn't connect one with the other.

A quote attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the early 20th century aviator:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

I'm taking this as my mantra. I've often had trouble keeping to word limits for competitions, particularly in magazines, and I end up stopping halfway through to cut out what I think I don't need. Of course, by the time I realise I did need it, it's too late, and I have to remember what I destroyed.

When I write now, I don't edit (apart from the occasional grammar or spelling error that chagrins me). These drafts are usually much longer than I want them to be. 3000 word limit? I write what I feel like before I start stripping down. If I end up with 5000 words, I have to almost punish myself to strip out 2000 words. (Thankfully, it is rare that things go that far.)

This is great practice! Getting a story down to the core is the best feeling. Pulling out extra words, worthless turns of phrase, clichés!

I never had a problem with clichés before. I thought of them as being like tropes. Tropes are useful for saving exposition. I don't need to explain a whole pile of techno-jargon for hackers if I can quickly talk about bots, firewalls and spiders. I know these will mean something to most readers, and I can decide whether they are standard pieces of code running somewhere else or virtual creatures and actual walls of fire in a full 3D virtual world later.

But clichés lost their purpose quickly. While I might be able to use a cliché in a novel and get away with it, in a short story a cliché is stopping me from telling my story. This has stolen a blade from my armoury, but has forced me to sharpen other weapons.

A word to the wise (probably not advice most writers need); if you need to work to a tight deadline, make sure you don't waste any time in the editing. It will probably take longer than you imagine. Time is as important as word counts or word choice.

So strip it right down. Become a butcher. Every cut is not a random slice, but is creating a cut of meat that someone will find succulent.

Resources

Writer Craig Hallam has begun a YouTube channel with some advice on writing and the industry.

MasterClass teaches writing skills from people who do this for a living!

Daily Writing Tips has some editing exercises with sample solutions.

If you know of any other resources that could be added to this list, please put them in the comments.