The Hated Editing or Rewriting Stage of Writing Should Be Your Favorite Part
By: Julia Amante
Tags: Editing, Writing Frustrations, Revision, Writing Process, Writing Tips

Photo by Håkon Grimstad on Unsplash

The last big frustration, in my series of five parts of writing that authors dislike, is editing or revising.

Everyone loves creating and writing, watching the words appear on the screen and pages fill up with their thoughts. Even non-writers enjoy the act of writing and expressing themselves. But as soon as someone mentions editing or revising their work, a darkness clouds their eyes, and you can see their minds shutting down.

Why is that? I ask that honestly, wanting to know the answer because I can’t relate to that feeling. I don’t mind editing or revising. I don’t love it as much as I love writing and creating characters that come to life inside of my story, in a world that I invented. But I do like the editing process because it gives me the opportunity to reenter my story as a reader. I read to experience the story and when things jump out at me that jars me out of the story, like a character not behaving as that character should (based on how I set her up), I like taking my highlighter and pen and making a note to fix that.

I have to like this because I want to write the best story possible. I can’t for example state that my character is loving and values her family, but then have her make a choice on page 200 where she chooses to do something that will harm her family. It would be out of character for her. If she does harm her family, it has to be an unintentional move. During revision, if I notice I’ve written something like this, I immediately need and want to change it, and I’m happy I caught it before the book was published.

Why Do So Many Hate Revising?

So, going back to the question of why editing and revising causes writers to get frustrated or to avoid this process, I’d like to try to answer it.

As I mentioned, writing is the fun part; it’s creative, it’s magical, it’s powerful, it’s even ego boosting. In comparison, what is editing and rewriting? It’s work. It’s hard. It’s deflating when we realize how many things we did wrong. Everything we wrote which sounded so brilliant in the heat of writing, now seems just okay, trite, or maybe even terrible. As we re-read our work, all the self-doubt we have as writers (and every writer I’ve known has self-doubt) comes out, like a bunch of those Halloween monsters that come to life when you walk past them. They startle you! We wonder how in the world we ever thought that was good.

Who wants to have those feelings? No one. And so, what happens? We avoid or put off the editing process. Or we struggle through it, hating every minute, wishing we could just toss that terrible story away and begin a new one. Don’t do that! It will be a temptation because something new always sounds more appealing. But don’t turn away from the work. This is where you grow as a writer. We learn and we grow from challenges, not when everything goes smoothly. If you don’t worth through the issues in your current story, you will make the same mistakes in the next novel and eventually you will tell yourself, you’re just not a good writer and give up.

I do kind of understand the frustration and the wanting to avoid fixing the problems, especially if they seem insurmountable. But I want to offer a different way of looking at editing. My perspective is that the editing process is not any less creative than the writing process. Editing and revising call for taking a closer look at the story. Writers need to systematically evaluate the big picture that we discussed in the previous blog.

If writers didn’t plot the story before writing it, now they need to look at the structure and figure out where the first turning point occurs where the character commits to her journey, where the middle point of no return is or where the mirror moment happens, where it looks like everything might fall apart. They need to see how each scene flows seamlessly into the next and ruthlessly take out every scene that doesn’t move the story forward.

All that takes analytical skill, but it is also creative. It’s design. Have you ever watched one of those home-design shows? The designers are editing and revising! They work with what is there, but sometimes throw things out, add new colors or drapes or furniture, change the flooring. They make little tweaks or large changes but when they are finished, the room or the house looks spectacular. It was their vision and their creativity that they used to take a mess and create something beautiful. This is the way I think if revising a story as well. The story might be a huge mess or might need slight tweaks, and it’s my job as the creative genius (I give myself outlandish titles) to make this story sparkle.

Can editing and revision be frustrating? Yes, of course. But we can make it less frustrating by looking at is as a continuation of building the amazing story that grew in our hearts and that we will soon share with the world.