Leave it or tweak it

[hmmnmm]

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[oggbashan]

Fresh or Processed?

The skill is to make processed and polished feel like fresh.

Takes years of practice and most of us still can't do it. A creative writing course can help with techniques. Precis used to be taught in UK schools. A precis of a passage can make you realise what is important and what isn't.

A rough rule of thumb: The more proud you are of a passage: the worse it is!

Og

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Depends a lot on your style too. I had a piece SDC'd a while back and got a lot of good advice on where to cut. I simply found cutting the descriptives in my work makes it read like something I didn't write.

Best advice is to use the cutting down proces like a scalpal rather than a weed whacker. When it obviously improves, use it. When you aren't sure the cut down version says what you meant to say or how you meant to say it, leave it in the original form or try a less severe cut down.

 

[English Lady]

Go with your gut.


Yup, I know I give this advice all the time but i think it applies here. If you feel something shouldn't be changed -don't change it.

It is in the end YOUR writing and you're the only one who can change it

 

[sweetnpetite]

Depends a lot on your style too. I had a piece SDC'd a while back and got a lot of good advice on where to cut. I simply found cutting the descriptives in my work makes it read like something I didn't write.

Best advice is to use the cutting down proces like a scalpal rather than a weed whacker. When it obviously improves, use it. When you aren't sure the cut down version says what you meant to say or how you meant to say it, leave it in the original form or try a less severe cut down.

I'm so glad this topic came up. It's actually one that I haven't seen before- not really as a thread of it's own or anything. Colly, I love your answer. Thanks so much, and thanks, hmmnmm for the thread.

PS-hmmnmm, I came up against something similer way back with 'the stranger' I had a lot of incomplete sentences (in dialogue) and as such, didn't feel that they needed proper punctuation, few people agreed that there was a real difference between "no" "No" and "No." I changed them, but it didn't feel write, so I changed them back. If someone said, "I'll pay you $200 for the story, but we are going to make all the dialogue gramitcally correct" I'd sure do it. But since this is a free site, I have to express my story the way I feel it.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

That's a tough one. I rarely open a story of mine without starting to screw around with some part of it. I can never leave it alone, so maybe I'm not the one to ask. My stories aren't anywhere near perfect when I submit them. Usually it's a combination of their being good enough and my being sick of tinkering with them for the time being.

As to editing and deleting, Dr. Johnson's advice on writing was: "Go over what you're written, and whenever you find something that's particularly fine, strike it out."

I know what he means, because sometimes the stuff we think is really cool in our writing turns out to be silly and embarrassing. But sometimes it turns out to be really cool too.

For my part, I don't subscribe to to the minimalist ideal that advises you to eliminate everything that isn't absolutely essential to a story. Fiction is also about detail and description, you just have to make sure that this detail doesn't slow down the story to the point where people lose interest. Detail is what we use to tell a reader that something's important. It's like a close-up in film. If you have too much detail, the reader doesn't know what's important and what's not. You've got to be careful that you're always writing for the reader more than just because you love the sound of your own voice.

Tough call.

 

[wildsweetone]

I think editing depends on a lot of variables.

What is the market for your work?

Is the story you've just written going to be sent off to a publisher? If it is, edit it so that it makes sense, so that the punctuation and grammar are correct and always check out the publisher submission guidelines so that what you are sending meets their requirements.

If you're writing for Literotica, are you writing for your own pleasure, for the pleasure of the 'stroke' readers, or for those who enjoy a story wrapped around the sex? Suite your editing to those specific needs.

If you've written a Journal entry, then my opinion is to leave it alone. Do not touch it. Those were your precious thoughts in the moment that you wrote them. They are how you felt and what you thought when you needed to write the entry. Changing them (for editing purposes) will most surely lose some of their impact. Journals are written in the moment and meant to be looked at when one has move further along in Life - they're there to help you sort out your sometimes muddled thoughts at troubled times (or should I say, in emotional times to cover all bases?).

Having said all that, it is always good practise to 'publish' writing that is your best effort. If others are going to read it, then make sure you spend the time polishing as much as you feel comfortable. If you don't feel comfortable but know there is something not quite right with your work, then ask for another person to look it over and comment. You don't have to take their advice, but it's always good to have that second pair of eyes (if not more).

Some authors tend to write so many extra words that they could edit their work removing 15% of the word count. (Probably I should edit this posting.)

Some authors write so sparse that the meaning of what they are trying to convey does not come across clearly to a reader.

Ultimately you have the last say in your own writing and how much time you spend on editing. Just ensure that the amount of time you spend is high quality time and you will feel proud of your end result.

It's actually okay to feel great about a good piece of writing.

I should also add, reading and helping others to edit their work will also be of benefit to your own writing. Eventually what you learn from another person's writing will improve your own writing.

 

[yui]

I think if it's first person, journal type prose, leave it. There are moments of brilliant lucidity to be had when writing what's in your head without constantly self-editing. If you are trying to put together a cohesive chain of events, it might be difficult work with, but if it's internal dialogue/journaling, leave it.

Part of the joy of writing is when you think you've expressed something really well. Perhaps, if we were getting paid we might have to kill all our darlings, but this is fun. Joy. A release. If we become so burdened by what we think a hypothetical audience wants, or by the fact that maybe something isn't perfect, the process itself loses much of its joy.

If you like the way something sounds, keep it. If it gives you pleasure, keep it. If your editor at Bantam thinks something needs to be changed, then you might consider changing it. But until then, make yourself happy.

 

[hmmnmm]

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[carsonshepherd]

This makes sense.
Something fictional- a story - you'd want as much clarity (or if it must be muddy make it fun to splash in) as possible.
I would tend to agree - sometimes this cutting and reworking is really cool, just really get into it. Other times it looks like a string of mountains and each paragraph is just one rock. Lately it's been cool.
And I can see where with a journal sort of thing if you're just throwing out thoughts, and ideas you could grant yourself more laxity. And if some of it makes you cringe two years later, then you just have to live with it. Right?
Interesting.

I went through a period when I experimented wildly an extravagantly with style and voice - what can I say, I was young. It all makes me cringe now.

Then, however, I went on to a time when I cut anything remotely "out there" or something I thought might make me cringe. My work was safe, sanitary, and BORING.

A nice middle ground is good to have

 

[sweetnpetite]

If you like the way something sounds, keep it. If it gives you pleasure, keep it. If your editor at Bantam thinks something needs to be changed, then you might consider changing it. But until then, make yourself happy.

Hear! Hear! [or is it Here! Here!?- I forget.]

 

[gauchecritic]

Got to echo the Wild one here ( and more to see you again) editing other's work is a great way to get into editing mode for your own.

But who am I to talk? I refuse to edit my work (except spelling) even when such illustrious AHers as Zoot and Shang have told me what's wrong with it.

I'll edit when in the middle but after I write 'The End' I just can't bring myself to remodel it. I'm just scared that I'll lose something that I didn't know was there when I wrote it.

For example: I showed a screenplay to a local RL 'writer in residence' and he pointed out a couple of occasions that were writerly techniques which I was unaware that I'd even written until that point.

So if I edit how many of those am I going to lose?

But if I'm in the middle and see something awkward or doesn't fit I'll happily remove whole paragraphs.

 

[hmmnmm]

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