Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: refreshed
  • Music: Shawn Colvin, "Polaroids."

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.
Tags: editing, late eclipses, proofreading, toby daye
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  • 30 comments

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

seanan_mcguire

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

Bricks are good.

mariadkins

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

Indeed!