McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Editorial question
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: Shadow on April 21, 2008, 09:21:59 PM ---Question. My cousin wrote a book and asked me to be her first reader/ initial editor. Since we've started she has been through 2 more drafts and her first round of readers. She thinks she just has some final tweaking to do, I think she has another whole edit to do. When I asked her if she was able to read the whole book through without stopping she said no :) By page three she is noticing things and by page 15 she had to stop to edit.
So my question for all you writers is, when do you feel your book is done? I know that nobody is every completely satisfied :), but what's the point where you let it go?
--- End quote ---
Have to let someone else read it. You're your own worst critic, so you're always going to find something that could be done better/differently. Some people finish the entire story, then go back through and edit, others get to some kind of stopping point and go back and edit and rewrite and go forward, and continue like that. From the little bit of History of Lord of the Rings that I've read, Tolkien did that all the time. If he hadn't, the story might've just been about Bilbo leaving the Shire to get married, or Aragorn being Bilbo's nephew and nicknamed "Trotter." Patricia Briggs said she writes that way, too. I can't say what point I get to to be finished, because I've not yet completed a story without going back and changing things. It's inchwork.
meg_evonne:
Do you write, Shadow?
The reason I ask, and I'm not the expert here, but from my online classes the important thing is to write. If you get caught up in the editing, then some personalities never get to putting it down on the paper part. I've seen that from several classmates in online classes who are themselves editors and copywriters. They agonize over getting it down perfectly and then are truly discouraged when they never get past Chapter 2. (and apparently you should toss out all first chapters automatically in the final draft!)
Also, don't overlook the fact that your cousin has probably spent a huge amount of time and has a large personal emotional investment into what s/he has accomplished. If s/he isn't looking for editing help--then they just need a pat on the back for creative effort. S/he will figure out for her/himself that they have a long way to go before it's ready to turn in.
Now, if you aren't writing Shadow, why aren't you? push push prod prod :-)
Shadow:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on April 22, 2008, 10:04:24 PM ---Do you write, Shadow?
The reason I ask, and I'm not the expert here, but from my online classes the important thing is to write. If you get caught up in the editing, then some personalities never get to putting it down on the paper part. I've seen that from several classmates in online classes who are themselves editors and copywriters. They agonize over getting it down perfectly and then are truly discouraged when they never get past Chapter 2. (and apparently you should toss out all first chapters automatically in the final draft!)
Also, don't overlook the fact that your cousin has probably spent a huge amount of time and has a large personal emotional investment into what s/he has accomplished. If s/he isn't looking for editing help--then they just need a pat on the back for creative effort. S/he will figure out for her/himself that they have a long way to go before it's ready to turn in.
Now, if you aren't writing Shadow, why aren't you? push push prod prod :-)
--- End quote ---
I've been a reader my whole life and sold books for 8 years, which is why she asked me to help her edit. We also have a fantastic relationship, where I can actually tell her the truth, not just the polite stuff. I've tried to be very careful to help guide, but not to overwhelm or direct, because it is her book not our book. The sense of urgancy for her comes from meeting an agent this week-end at a workshop who asked my cousin to send her a submission. My cousin wants to send her query while the agent still remembers her. My cousin thinks she needs to clean it up and tweak some. I'm just afraid she has more to do than she realizes. I forsee alot of late nights for her this week ;D
I don't write :) I've had a few ideas now and then, but nothing that ever made me want to put pen to paper.
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: Shadow on April 22, 2008, 11:19:13 PM ---I've been a reader my whole life and sold books for 8 years, which is why she asked me to help her edit. We also have a fantastic relationship, where I can actually tell her the truth, not just the polite stuff. I've tried to be very careful to help guide, but not to overwhelm or direct, because it is her book not our book. The sense of urgancy for her comes from meeting an agent this week-end at a workshop who asked my cousin to send her a submission. My cousin wants to send her query while the agent still remembers her. My cousin thinks she needs to clean it up and tweak some. I'm just afraid she has more to do than she realizes. I forsee alot of late nights for her this week ;D
I don't write :) I've had a few ideas now and then, but nothing that ever made me want to put pen to paper.
--- End quote ---
If that's the case, and if the submission requirements are like those I've seen most places, the agent will only want the first five pages or so with a query, if they like it, they'll ask for the first few chapters, and then if they like those, they'll ask for the rest of the manuscript. Which gives a bit more time to polish the entire thing. I don't know how long it takes an agent to respond to a query, but I think I remember reading/seeing somewhere that an average is something like a month.
Paynesgrey:
I can't speak as an author, but from a painter's viewpoint, I learned to stop when people would start slapping the brush out of my hands and telling me not to touch it. As a rule, when I thought something was "perfect", it had some hideous flaw that I needed somebody to mention to notice...and when it was finished, I thought I had "just one more thing-ed" for the past several hours.
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