still editing . . .

[dbskyler]

Well, I definitely have a fic coming, but I don't know yet when it'll be ready to post. It could be as soon as tomorrow, or it could be quite awhile off still. Which brings me to a hopefully interesting question -- how do you know when a story is ready to be posted?

Let me tell you how I do it. First off, I edit as I write. I type a sentence, then edit it immediately if I decide I don't like it. Sometimes this leads me to go back and edit the entire paragraph. Sometimes I will then end up getting rid of the entire paragraph (a little trend I like to call "writing in reverse" -- sometimes the more I write, the fewer words I have in the document!)

Once I get to the point where I have a finished draft, I start doing read-throughs. The trick here is that I have to let the story "rest" in between so I can come at it from a reasonably fresh standpoint. (Not entirely fresh, of course, but fresher.) I read it through and edit it, then I let it rest again. Then I read it through again. If I find myself editing it some more, it's not ready yet -- I have to rest it again, and do another pass. The story is ready to post when I do a read-through and don't find anything else to change.

I don't remember how many times I've read through this latest fic, but it's been at least four passes I think. I thought it might be ready to post tonight, but instead I made some pretty major changes to it again. It's possible that I'll read it tomorrow and love every word, or it's possible that I'll go "what was I thinking?" and hack at it some more.

Anyone else edit like this? If not, what do you do instead?

Comments

[pitry.livejournal.com]

I think I have a decidedly different writing style from yours, which also affects the editing process.

By the time I sit down to write, I already have all the important points of the fic in my head, or, depending on where I was/ what I was doing when I thought of the fic/how long the fic is, written down. Not as an outline - actual bits of the story, often with specific wording (this is why I hate when really good ideas come to me at work or worse! when I'm walking TO work. By the time I get down to write it, I usually lose some of the wording). I then write the whole thing. This is, by then, I'm already writing it semi-edited, because a lot of the processes of "this should go here that should go there, this is the best wording" has already happened in my head. I would edit still at this point if I feel I'm doing something wrong, but that depends on how hard it was to start the story. Once I finish writing it I give it a read (if it's a long chaptered fic, usually it would be in chunks, but if it's a shorter story then I probably write the whole thing in one day then re-read it), then let it stew on itself for a bit, then give it a second reading, polishing some wording etc. If I have a beta this is where I send it to her and not look at it again until I get it back with her comments - I first go over the comments specifically, then give it another full read. And that's usually it. I should probably give it more reads/edits, I guess, but in order to do that I have to let it sit again otherwise I'm bored by it and simply can't re-read it again, but I'm usually too impatient and send it on its merry way by then.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yes, that does sound very different! It's rare for me to do pre-writing in my head before I begin a fic. More often, I just have a vague idea, and I "discover" the fic while I'm writing it.

I understand what you're saying about editing happening in the head, though. In those rare cases when I do have a strong sense of the story before I start writing it, I usually can write it fairly quickly and don't wind up with much editing to do.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for me it's all about a sense of the story I think. It has its disadvantages of course - if I don't have a strong sense of the story, I can't even start writing it, because it would just be staring at a blank page and writing nothing. When I already have a strong sense of the story writing is very fast, but before that... nothing. And, as I mentioned (and so did lost_spook), I can end up losing the phrasing because it was in my head and by the time I get to write it down it's nothing but pale imitation of what I had in mind and it's soooooo frustrating ;)