OK, so for the record: I hate editing.
-Also-
For the record: I love editing...
...but mostly I hate it, and let me tell you why. Of course, if you're not interested, you could stop reading right here, but why stop, you may find something amusing (or at least entertaining). If you don't I encourage you to check out Youtube for that video of the animatronic dinosaur scaring that little kid.
Anyroad, here's why I love editing (since I'm sort of an optimist, we'll go with the good news first):
It helps me find my voice. More importantly, it helps me actualize my voice so that you, the reader, can understand it and get a clear idea of what that voice is like (when you eventually pick up a copy of my best seller).
It also helps expand my vocabulary. Sure, I love words like bellicose and defenestration, but those are only two words. Hard to fill a sixty thousand word novel with those two words over and over again (though I've already done it and made a movie about it... in my head... it stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, The Rock, Triple-H, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Samuel L. Jackson) and taking the time to edit allows me to utilize one of the best tools I've found for writing: Thesaurus.com (though it's currently tied with Wordhippo.com).
Now, because I like to rant, sometimes, here's why I hate editing (and I can already hear Chuck Wendig's voice in the back of my head bellowing, "Quite yer *expletive deleted* whining you *expletive deleted* pansy. Put yer *expletive deleted* big boy pants on and *expletive deleted* write!"):
It's slow. I put all that effort into getting the words onto paper. Sure, it was writing for quantity and sure there were parts where I put "<insert really cool fight scene here>", but in comparison to spending an hour to pound out a few thousand words. Here I spend an hour and I've gotten MAYBE three pages done... out of one hundred and seventy three. Now, with maintaining a healthy, happy relationship with my awesome wife, helping her with two home-based companies, maintaining a household (laundry, dishes, lunches, breakfasts, lawn care, home repairs, etc...), child care for a one-and-a-half year old and an eight year old, time devoted to editing is very limited (Yup, there it is, Chuck's voice again cursing at me). I felt way more accomplished when I could say I got a few thousand words out. I'll get over it (and myself, and my ego yelling at me in Chuck Wendig's voice).
It's hard to see what I've written converted into something that isn't what I wrote: like when I change tenses, point of view, etc... I wrote it and when I re-read it, it sounded fine... Now I change the tense and the point of view and it sounds a bit clunky... well, at least to me, but I'm overly critical... just ask the other theatre majors from my Theatre Criticism class... none of them wanted me to come see their shows... ever.
It's slow. Yeah, I know I mentioned this already, but it's really important to me, so you know, repetition makes things stick and all that.
Anyroad, that's really all I have to say about my love/hate relationship with editing. I'm sure I'll get over myself, but not before I can whine just a bit more (and not before I can experience defenestration first hand by my ego/Chuck Wendig voice, at least metaphorically). :)
As always, thanks for your support and if you got all the way down here, thanks for reading!
~Stephan
P.S. Chuck, if you actually read this blog entry, I love you man, keep up the awesome work... you're a *expletive deleted* inspiration! :)
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