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
...go 5 levels up... Expand

seanan_mcguire

July 3 2009, 03:28:03 UTC 8 years ago

I was going to say "no," and look sad. And then I got home, and found Alice sitting on a package from Amazon!

Right now, I love you.

greektoomey

July 3 2009, 04:28:37 UTC 8 years ago

It was the least I could do.

The thought that you, of all people, had not already made Mr. Gorey's acquaintance was frankly astonishing. The possibility that you might remain unfamiliar was the sort of grave injustice that I could not tolerate in my sight and yet call myself a man, or a lover of knowledge.

I feel privileged to make the introduction.

(That took long enough, though! It was supposed to have been delivered 6/23.)

seanan_mcguire

July 6 2009, 02:21:17 UTC 7 years ago

My mail goes astray often enough that I damn near had hysterics while waiting for my ARCs to show up.

The Unstrung Harp is sheer brilliance, I swear.

greektoomey

July 6 2009, 02:34:42 UTC 7 years ago

That story taught me the word fantod, which I think is one of the best (English) words ever.

(The sentence in my previous comment was supposed to end with "...or a lover of truth." I don't know what happened.)

seanan_mcguire

July 10 2009, 18:34:39 UTC 7 years ago

The fact that it's a REAL WORD is just mad awesome. I love this language sometimes.