Editing time

[dr_mabeuse]

If you use MSWord, and click on "Properties" under "File", then click on the "Statistics" tab, you'll see a word count and a lot more information about the document you're working on, including the editing time.

I started a story on December 11 and just submitted it to Lit. It's about 11.5 K words, which is kind of long for me, and I saw that my editing time was about 1250 minutes, or just about 21 hours.

Anyone else know what their editing times are? Seems kind of like a lot of time to me.

---dr.M.

 

[ffreak]

I checked some of my stories and got quite a wide array of times; from 42 minutes on The Chaperone to 110 minutes on The Chocoholic and 23,833 minutes (397+ hours or 24 days) on a novel where I'm still working on the first draft.

In my experience, writing the first draft of a story seems a breeze compared to the editing time. My suspicion is that the numbers on the short stories are too low and represent some predetermined idea of editing based on time of first save.

I haven't found out how to 'start the clock' on editing. If I do, I'll be happy to share.

-FF
ps. Hope you're having happy holidays, Doc.

 

[AngeloMichael]

My latest story is 30 k words and the editing time was 4127 minutes which is close to 69 hours.

 

[Black Tulip]

I did find the statistics, but I don't know how it works. One story had 12 minutes as editing time but it also said it was the third draft. Does that mean that it is not cumulative?

The longest editing time I found was 122 minutes for a story of 13 pages Word. That one is not yet finished.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'm not that concerned with editing time compared to writing time because I tend to do them simultaneously. I write a paragraph then start on another, then go back and change something in the first, then finish the first, then go back and change something at the start of the story. And I always watch for typos and correct them as I go. In other words, even I am writing, I am editing, so how do I distinguish between one and the other?

 

[MathGirl]

Holy shit!

My latest story is 30 k words and the editing time was 4127 minutes which is close to 69 hours.

Dear Ang,
Either you're very slow, or that puppy needed some heavy duty editing.
MG

 

[dr_mabeuse]

As far as I know, the MSWord "editing time" merely counts the time you spend on a document. It really can't tell writing from editing.

---dr.M.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

ps. Hope you're having happy holidays, Doc.

Tolerable, ffreak, tolerable. I've found Christmas works best when you don't expect it to be anything special, then everything that happens is a gift.

Happy returns to you & yours as well...

 

[A7inchPhildo]

My last story was almost 10k words and I had a very nice person do most of the final editing.
As MS Word shows 23 minutes combined from both files. I am guessing it some how can distinguish the difference between editing and writing. I spent much longer than 23 minutes just on accepting insertions and deletions. My thought, it is as useless as getting worked up over votes.

 

[The_old_man]

Word perfect does not give times, just the word, character, sentence length, etc.

Time for me would be very misleading in any event. From first word to final submission, some of my stories have taken years.

 

[AngeloMichael]

Dear Ang,
Either you're very slow, or that puppy needed some heavy duty editing.
MG

Hey MG,

A little from column A, and a little from column B.

I find that for me having a "good" writing session is when the words pour out of my head and onto the the screen like jigsaw puzzle pieces pouring out of the box and onto a table, however, then I have to take the time to arrange and rearrange the words to make them fit exactly right, like putting the puzzle together. Sometimes it can take a while, and expanding the puzzle analogy even further, the more complex the piece is the longer I take.

TC

 

[BardsLady]

Do you ever??

Ang,

Have you ever found yourself *seeing* what's happening in your stories as you write the scenes?

When I sit down to write, I find myself caught up in the story as it happens and sometimes I feel w hat my main character is feeling.

One time, it called for my char to get incredibly angry and I found myself using more force than necessary to type out the words. That was when I discovered that being emotionally attatched to a story can be hazardous to your keyboard.

Other times, when I write, it's like a Muse takes over and my brain takes a hike while the muse and my fingers start creating a story.

Keep in touch,

 

[AngeloMichael]

Re: Do you ever??

BardsLady,

I can't write stories without visualizing the scene before I write it and whilile I'm writing it. Also I do tend to take on the feelings of my characters while I'm writing particulary emotional scenes, when they are angry I feel angry, when they are sad I feel sad...etc. But sometimes that also works in reverse, if I'm feeling in a particularly jovial mood I start writing about happy characters, if I'm depressed, sad characters.

I know what you mean about a muse taking over. Sometimes I write a paragraph or even just a line and I think to myself "Where the heck did that come from?" Inspiration is probably the most interesting aspect of the writing process, having exactly the right words come out and having them fit in exactly the right place is a great feeling.

TC

 

[BardsLady]

I can agree with that. I like to watch my stories come together. Sometimes when I want a story to go a certain way, my muse takes it in the opposite direction and it makes the whole story flow better. Sometimes I have to reign in my Muse because it's turning into a novel rather than an erotic story.

Yes, it's so much fun when a story comes together.

 

[Black Tulip]

Re: Do you ever??

Ang,

Have you ever found yourself *seeing* what's happening in your stories as you write the scenes?

When I sit down to write, I find myself caught up in the story as it happens and sometimes I feel w hat my main character is feeling.

One time, it called for my char to get incredibly angry and I found myself using more force than necessary to type out the words. That was when I discovered that being emotionally attatched to a story can be hazardous to your keyboard.

Other times, when I write, it's like a Muse takes over and my brain takes a hike while the muse and my fingers start creating a story.

Keep in touch,

Well Bardslady,

My stories always start with a kind of film in my head. The hard part is putting the film in words.

As for the emotions, that works the same for me. If I'm doing really well, I kind of get caught up in the anger or the sadness or whatever.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I always have a good idea of what I am going to describe, even before I start putting it on paper, so to speak. If I am writing the story to the specific request of one of my readers, I usually have her description and what she wants me to include written out on the page in front of where I am writing. If I am writing about group sex, I usually have the difeent combinations that are going to happen sketched out in front of where I am writing. After that, the story tends to mostly write itself although I have to keep it from going too far afield.