Editing
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Editing is the most important skill you can learn in writing. Anne Lamott says in Bird By Bird (1994:21), “Now, practically, even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of [crappy] first drafts. All good writers write them.” Isn’t that a relief that you can sit down and write to your heart’s content and know that whatever you’ve written doesn’t have to be perfect? As a matter of fact, Lamott continues on page 39, “Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can’t—and, in fact, you’re not supposed to—know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing.” The next step after completing the first draft is to go back and edit your own work, looking at it as though you’re a stranger seeing it for the first time and being as brutally honest with yourself as possible. In A Writer Teaches Writing (1985:61), Donald M. Murray tells us, “Now the writer must step back and view the work as it will be seen by a reader.” Although it is up to the writer to edit the manuscript, it may help to recruit the assistance of a professional editor or a group of fellow writers. A professional editor usually charges by the page, but it is well worth the money. Often it is difficult to have the objectivity needed to edit one’s own work and most of us can use outside assistance. Stephen King says in On Writing (2000:197), “Toss it even if you love it,” but that’s not always easy to do. If you can, great, if not, recruit someone who can give you the motivation needed to slash and burn that favorite metaphor or scene.
Writer’s Groups are a wonderful avenue for editing. Running an ad in your local newspaper will turn up many closet writers who would be happy to edit your work in trade for editing theirs.