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How to Edit Long Pieces

The editing process of longer pieces can feel much like detangling a fine-strand necklace that spent years at the bottom of a jewelry box. It’s knotted, full of stops and starts. Just when you make some progress, another segment snarls itself or catches on your fingernail and down it goes.


For the editing itself, it's not going to surprise you that my best suggestion is to break the editing tasks down to manageable chunks. If you try to unknot the chain with one savage pull, things will end up far worse than before.


Make a list of the editing passes you need to make: from plot/story/narrative to character, structure to chronology, scene, summary. Passages to paragraphs to sentences to word choice, etc., etc., etc. All writers have their unique writing...quirks, and while voice and style are essential aspects to play up, tics are equally essential to pare down or eliminate. Not to mention basic copy editing and all the rest!


Once you have your initial list (initial because you'll find more to add as you go) rewrite it in priority order and tackle the work systematically and strategically, one tangle at a time.


The second part has to do with losing interest — but let's be clear that when we talk about writing, we really mean all of the steps: drafting, creating, imagining...AND editing. If you are losing interest in any of the tasks, switch to something else. That counts as "taking a break." If you believe you're truly losing interest in the work itself, then it might be time to put that project in a literal or figurative drawer for a bit and work on a different project — writing or not-writing.


A universal continuum exists between viewing everything we write as absolutely brilliant and gorgeous and perfectly unblemished....and utter crap, worthless trash. Neither end of the spectrum is the truth. So you might need to wait it out.



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