Perfection or Flaw

Perfection in poetry or prose gives me a feeling of complete well centered enjoyment.

Flaws are fingernail scratches on blackboard.


How much effort do you put into editing your first draft?

wildsweetone said:

Perfection in poetry or prose gives me a feeling of complete well centered enjoyment.

Flaws are fingernail scratches on blackboard.


How much effort do you put into editing your first draft?

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That all depends on how long the story is. I don't mean in the respect that more pages equals more time, I mean that when I've written a short, I read back through it straight away and will know instantly whether or not it "works". I'll go through and do a micro-edit (checking for typo's and punctuation and grammar errors), but that's about it.

If it doesn't work I'll usually just move on to something else, but that is rare.

With novels it takes me months. I always find that there are parts that need re-writing - inconsistencies in plot, character's behaviour gone awry and so on. Then I'll do the micro-edit, once I'm happy each chapter works and they run on from each other well. It takes me longer to edit a novel than it does to acually write it in the first place.

Lou

wildsweetone said:

How much effort do you put into editing your first draft?

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As much as it takes to get the feeling of complete well centered enjoyment. Can be 10 times as much effort as what went into the first draft.

wildsweetone said:

Perfection in poetry or prose gives me a feeling of complete well centered enjoyment.

Flaws are fingernail scratches on blackboard.


How much effort do you put into editing your first draft?

Click to expand...

Stories -- LOTS. And I just keep editing. I'm constantly resubmitting my stories with minor edits. Must drive the webmasters completely NUTS.

Poems -- Not as much 'cause I *feel* them as opposed to *think* them. As such, the "first draft" isn't really a "draft" at all 'cause if it doesn't feel right, it never gets that far.

wildsweetone said:

Perfection in poetry or prose gives me a feeling of complete well centered enjoyment.

Flaws are fingernail scratches on blackboard.


How much effort do you put into editing your first draft?

Click to expand...

A lot more than I used to, in fact so much I rarely submit anything these days, everything seems to need so much pissing about to get it perfect... I just don't often have the time to go over and over the piece... so it gets shelved... I used to just give it a quick spell check and submit, I never intended to be a serious author, but I seem to have degenerated into a fussy bastard.

I don't do poetry, well not serious stuff, but I think too much messing with a poem would ruin the original desired effect, but that's just an opinion.

I hate editing. There is always one turn of phrase or something within an unideal portion or plothole that I have to try and preserve while fixing everything around it and not making everything sound like crap. Because of this, I often try and make it all work reasonably okay the first time around so that all the editing needed is grammar, punctuation, and a few small rewrites.

This is also the reason that it takes me so bloody long to do stories longer than short stories.

I edit my stories to death. I can strike passages, rewrite paragraphs, tinker with the plot and be a general anal-retentive schmuch about the whole thing. I edit my poems rarely. If I don't get it right from the start, save for a few minor tweaks, I hit delete and start over. To me, writing prose is methodical and tedious process. Writing a poem is about capturing the essence of something before I lose my focus, which is very easily done.

#L

I hate editing too but with poem I sometimes don't edit at all and just go woth the flow - that may be the fingernails on a blackboard for some people!!

stories get edited on the fly mostly, then one big look over once it's finished. I'll try and get osmeone else to read it through for me too, usually hubby. but sometimes i'm too impatient and just post it anyway.

poetry is never edited. it flows as it flows and it stays as it is first written.

My stories sort of accrete.

I write for a bit, go back and edit, write some more, go back and edit etc. ad nauseum.

Once it's finished I 'hand polish'. Fix spelling and grammar, rewrite awkward sentences and paragraphs etc.

I used to be a real perfectionist, about everything. Finally I realised I was only human and I learned to settle for pretty damn good. In my opinion.

Don't write poetry. My mind doesn't seem to work that way.

I used to edit each draft, rewrite, re-edit, print it off and go through with a pencil...

Then I did NaNoWriMo last year. I edited on the fly, posted each chapter as soon as I finished. Those stories are higher rated than almost everything I've ever written despite a few errors.

I'm now less of a perfectionist although I still read through several times. My editing seems to destroy the spontaneity.

Og

I seem to be in the majority here. I edit my prose much more aggressively than my poetry...

Like Liar, Imp & EL, my poetry is more about capture than construction....

Belegon said:

Like Liar, Imp & EL, my poetry is more about capture than construction....

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What a poetic way to put it!

I've said it often enough for everyone to know that I don't do any formal editing after I finish a story. Fly editing (like rg or el) is what works for me. The thing I hate about fly editing (and my memory in general) is that whilst editing I think of something really good to add in later and then promptly forget after I've spent 20 minutes deciding if the last sentence ought to have a colon in it.

Poetry. Hmm. I haven't done much but I did learn a valuable lesson in that, so far, limited area.

I converted a couple of prose pieces into a poetry format which took much longer than the original writing. Then someone told me that poems don't necessarily have to look like poems to be poetry. Which gave me an enormous amount of freedom when I converted a post to the boards into a poem. Very few views, very few votes, very few comments but one of my very favourite pieces of poetry.

"I'm Guessing But..."

In complete contrast to my other poems I was asked to explain the details and images, which I delighted in doing.

So again I'm left with the fact that I do very little editing after writing "The End".

I usually just skim over it once to check for grammar and continuity. The only problem I have, is that I always think of additional details after it's been submitted.