Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.: seanan

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

There are a lot of ways to edit. Mostly, I edit on the computer, feeding drafts to my dedicated pool of machete-wielding psychopaths and trusting them to give me back something bloody, beaten, and better than it began. I also do a lot of my own rewriting, but like so many, I've "gone green," working almost entirely in the virtual world. It's not uncommon for a book to make it through multiple drafts without ever existing in a physical form. Not bad for a girl whose first two books were written entirely on typewriter, huh? (And no, you can't read them.)

Sometimes, though, the damage is too deep, and you need to take a new approach to making things not be broken. That's where the red-line edits come in. I have printed a copy of Late Eclipses—yes, the entire multi-hundred page epic—and am now going through it chapter by chapter with the red pen. It's fascinating. Passive voice and wishy-washy modifiers fall before the tide of crimson ink like trees going down before a particularly dedicated logging crew. Things that looked just fine on the screen make me cringe when I see them on paper. And then I fix them. Because I can.

There are definite limitations to the red-line process, not the least of which is "you have to carry whatever it is you're working on." But I gotta say, when I get to this particular level of nit-picky correction, where it feels like the book is winning, it's nice to know that I have a dark alley to lure the text unsuspectingly down. And in that alley, I have a brick. A brick made entirely of red ink and causing pain.

Sometimes my taste in metaphors worries me. But my manuscript looks like it's been the victim in a low-budget slasher film, so I really don't care.

starmalachite

May 30 2009, 05:20:03 UTC 8 years ago

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Things that looked just fine on the screen make me cringe when I see them on paper.

Yep. 25 years as a tech writer & that's still true for me too.

seanan_mcguire

May 30 2009, 15:08:00 UTC 8 years ago

It's a fascinating re-framing trick.

...oh dear stars, I just used WW jargon to refer to writing...

catnip13

May 30 2009, 17:36:37 UTC 8 years ago

Again.

June 1 2009, 14:27:53 UTC 8 years ago

At least I'm reliable?

hsifyppah

May 30 2009, 07:25:30 UTC 8 years ago

wishy-washy modifiers fall before the tide of crimson ink

Hah! HULK SMASH!

May 30 2009, 15:08:09 UTC 8 years ago

Because I love you.

greektoomey

May 30 2009, 09:48:32 UTC 8 years ago

Have you read The Unstrung Harp: or, Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel?

May 30 2009, 15:08:18 UTC 8 years ago

No! What is?

May 30 2009, 15:54:23 UTC 8 years ago

It's a story written & illustrated by Edward Gorey, detailing one author's process of novel-writing, from start to finish. It's genius.

"Mr. C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass is, of course, the well-known novelist. Of his books, A Moral Dustbin, More Chains Than Clank, Was It Likely?, and the Hipdeep trilogy are, perhaps, the most admired. ...

On November 18th of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing 'his new novel.' Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply, but his mind will keep reverting to the last biscuit on the plate.

If you don't wish to pay collectors' pricing, the best way to get it is in the anthology Amphigorey, which also contains oodles more brilliance that I suspect you will find precisely tailored to your particular sense of humor, for example, this excerpt from The Listing Attic:

Each night Father fills me with dread,
When he sits on the foot of my bed;
I'd not mind that he speaks
In gibbers and squeaks,
But for seventeen years he's been dead.

June 1 2009, 14:28:11 UTC 8 years ago

Oh, that's cool.

May 30 2009, 18:33:47 UTC 8 years ago

In fact, I'm a little bit scandalized that you don't have Amphigorey already. Do you have an Amazon wishlist? Put it on there and I'll send you a copy. Really, it's that good.

June 2 2009, 17:11:53 UTC 8 years ago

I do, in fact, have an Amazon wishlist; it's under Seanan McGuire.

July 2 2009, 20:10:04 UTC 7 years ago

Did you ever receive your book?

7 years ago

mariadkins

May 30 2009, 11:15:52 UTC 8 years ago

My first books were written longhand in five subject notebooks back when I was in high school. We won't discuss that. LOL

Sometimes, though, the damage is too deep, and you need to take a new approach to making things not be broken

I just spent the last six months straightening out Midnight -- two of those months include it being out to readers, one of it being retyped. I printed out the manuscript, saved a backup, and went at it with notes and additions and removals and tons of ink. The thing was such a mess that I deleted the backup and totally retyped the entire train wreck.

Things that looked just fine on the screen make me cringe when I see them on paper. And then I fix them. Because I can.

Same here. I'm totally ruthless. And it's much simpler with paper in hand.

it's nice to know that I have a dark alley to lure the text unsuspectingly down. And in that alley, I have a brick

I love that LOL

May 30 2009, 15:08:27 UTC 8 years ago

Bricks are good.

May 30 2009, 15:57:50 UTC 8 years ago

Indeed!

jongibbs

May 30 2009, 15:08:47 UTC 8 years ago

I always miss stuff when I try to edit on screen, so after going through it with a fine toothcomb on the monitor, I print the first draft out in book form at Staples (doublesided, double-spaced).

You're right about how disheartening it feels to see all that red ink, but we all make mistakes. Better that we spot them than a potential agent/publisher, right? :)

May 30 2009, 15:58:41 UTC 8 years ago

I'd rather find them and weed through as many as I can before a reader of any kind or stripe gets hold of the manuscript. I've had a few readers find errors late in the process with Midnight that made me blush with shame.

June 2 2009, 14:48:40 UTC 8 years ago

I actually sort of like all the red ink. It's cozy, like my own pet horror movie that I'm allowed to hug.

tsukara

May 30 2009, 17:26:58 UTC 8 years ago

Bricks good. Bricks very good.

Due to having a penchant for using red pens when the editing is tricky, I think I've spent as much on red pens over the years as I have on black inking pens.

Besides, it's a certain sense of satisfaction, to see the red all over that page after you've bricked the text into submission.

June 2 2009, 14:48:57 UTC 8 years ago

Absolutely.

PS: Your icon rules.

liralen

May 30 2009, 20:30:35 UTC 8 years ago

Hoorah for fixing what you can.

It's amazing how *different* things look on paper than just on the screen...

June 2 2009, 14:49:22 UTC 8 years ago

I know! I'm infinitely better at avoiding the passive voice when editing on paper. I don't know why.

hasufin

May 30 2009, 22:11:05 UTC 8 years ago

I do it all the time; there's nothing quite like having dead tree in hand for doing edits. With a machete, indeed.

Heck, back in a past life when I was a programmer, I would sometimes print out code and slash my way through it.

Yes, I'm sure the logging industry loves us all.

June 8 2009, 19:24:15 UTC 8 years ago

This is why we need legalized hemp. Cheaper paper, and we don't have to have the decentralized deforestation guilt.

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