Friday 24 June 2011

All About Editing - Emily Gee

I first came across Emily's book in a random browsing session on Amazon, but since then I have bought all her fantasy books, and absolutely love them, so today's post is all the more exciting for me. 



Here is Emily's post:

Do you love editing, or hate it, or somewhere in the middle?
I wouldn't say that I *adore* editing, Dolly, but I do enjoy it. There's a lot of satisfaction in tinkering with paragraphs and sentences--moving them around, cutting a bit here, adding a bit there--until they read the best they possibly can. (Can you tell I'm a word geek? )

Do you edit as you go? Or do you start only after the first draft?
I edit as I go. For my latest book, I tried not to edit at all during the first draft (i.e. the Fast Draft method), in the hope that it would help me write faster, but the end result was that I was much slower! It took many, many more passes through the book to pull it all together and to get some spark on the pages. So I've gone back to editing as I write. Yes, the first draft takes longer, but on the flip side, it's pretty polished and doesn't need a huge amount of editing.

Any tips you've learned from your experience?
Different methods work for different people. Some writers swear by the Fast Draft method (i.e. don't edit at all while writing the first draft), others (like me) work best by editing as they go. My advice would be to experiment. Discover what works best for you. Don't stick with one method just because other people have said it's the best one!




My only editing tip would be to print out your work. You see so much more when you're holding the pages in your hands than you ever do when you're reading on screen. Yes, it uses more paper and ink, but the end result is a much better book!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Dolly! It's so lovely to be your guest today. I'm glad you stumbled across my books -- and that you enjoy them!

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  2. I so agree about printing out a hard copy. I actually do this twice. For the first read through and then again.

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  3. Emily,

    Thank you so much for your post :-) It's always thrilling to be able to talk to authors you like (I guess normal people's version of meeting celebrities) let alone get a post from them.

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  4. Hi Katie!

    Yeah, I print out several times too -- once for each fresh pass through the book (and sometimes it takes a lot of passes!). I use ARC format, to cut down the number of pages. Makes a big difference!

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  5. You're welcome, Dolly -- although I should point out that I'm just like you, only a couple of years further on! Have you ever been to a writers' conference? Rooms filled with authors -- I think you'd love it!

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