Nancy Zaroulis's Blog: QWERTYUIOP: A Blog About Writing - Posts Tagged "editing"
Time Is the Best Editor
A “Frequently Asked Question” for authors at Book Talks and elsewhere goes something like this: “I’ve just finished my novel/memoir/history of the Civil War/how-to book on car repair. Where should I send it?”
My answer is always the same: “Send it to your desk drawer. Let it marinate for a few months. Then take it out and read it as if you are an editor being asked to pay real money for it. You will be amazed at what you see that needs correcting, or deleting, or a total rewrite.”
Then do the necessary editing.
Do not ask your mother/husband/best friend to critique your manuscript. They are fond of you. They will not want to offend you by offering negative comments. On the other hand, what do they know? They do not read the genre in which you are writing. They know nothing about car repair. They just want to make you happy.
“But what about my book group?” my questioner might say. “Shouldn’t they have a look at it?” (I am talking here about book groups for writers, not book groups for readers.)
There is nothing wrong with book groups for writers. Lots of people belong to them. They offer moral support, tips, and probably the beverage of someone’s choice. But if you show your manuscript (or parts of it) to, say, five or six people, you are probably going to get five or six responses. Which one is correct? Even if you get a unanimous “Great!” verdict, what do they know? Or, worse, if you get a complete thumbs-down, the same response is true. They may all be wrong. They may all be right. How do you know?
You don’t.
I have written novels that took years to compete. That was not a bad thing. It was, in fact, a good thing. By the time I typed the final draft, I could see problems that I hadn’t known existed. So I fixed them.
Once, trying to place a very long novel of mine, my agent had repeated turndowns from publishers. “Too long,” they said.
My agent told me I needed to cut it.
I told her I had lived with that novel for five years. I had cut it by one-third as I typed the final draft. I wasn’t going to cut it any further.
How long should a book be? It should be as long as it needs to be to tell the story.
Finally my agent placed my manuscript with a major publisher. Readers loved it. I believe they would not have loved it as much if I had listened to her.
Of course, I could have been wrong, but I didn’t think I was. The manuscript might still be in my desk drawer, unpublished, unread.
But life is luck, as you know, and I had a little of it then when the right publisher came along.
So give your manuscript time to ripen. Read it with fresh eyes. Trust your gut.
Time is the best editor.
My answer is always the same: “Send it to your desk drawer. Let it marinate for a few months. Then take it out and read it as if you are an editor being asked to pay real money for it. You will be amazed at what you see that needs correcting, or deleting, or a total rewrite.”
Then do the necessary editing.
Do not ask your mother/husband/best friend to critique your manuscript. They are fond of you. They will not want to offend you by offering negative comments. On the other hand, what do they know? They do not read the genre in which you are writing. They know nothing about car repair. They just want to make you happy.
“But what about my book group?” my questioner might say. “Shouldn’t they have a look at it?” (I am talking here about book groups for writers, not book groups for readers.)
There is nothing wrong with book groups for writers. Lots of people belong to them. They offer moral support, tips, and probably the beverage of someone’s choice. But if you show your manuscript (or parts of it) to, say, five or six people, you are probably going to get five or six responses. Which one is correct? Even if you get a unanimous “Great!” verdict, what do they know? Or, worse, if you get a complete thumbs-down, the same response is true. They may all be wrong. They may all be right. How do you know?
You don’t.
I have written novels that took years to compete. That was not a bad thing. It was, in fact, a good thing. By the time I typed the final draft, I could see problems that I hadn’t known existed. So I fixed them.
Once, trying to place a very long novel of mine, my agent had repeated turndowns from publishers. “Too long,” they said.
My agent told me I needed to cut it.
I told her I had lived with that novel for five years. I had cut it by one-third as I typed the final draft. I wasn’t going to cut it any further.
How long should a book be? It should be as long as it needs to be to tell the story.
Finally my agent placed my manuscript with a major publisher. Readers loved it. I believe they would not have loved it as much if I had listened to her.
Of course, I could have been wrong, but I didn’t think I was. The manuscript might still be in my desk drawer, unpublished, unread.
But life is luck, as you know, and I had a little of it then when the right publisher came along.
So give your manuscript time to ripen. Read it with fresh eyes. Trust your gut.
Time is the best editor.
