About Editing
After I was done with the writing part of my new Horror novella, I took two days off and then went back to reading and editing it with a fresh mind. At first glance and then subsequent read, I hated everything about it. There were tons of mistakes, the plot in the beginning had some inconsistencies that were bound to happen since I had changed and tweaked the story midway.
Then and there, I decided to discard the whole story. There were just too many mistakes and I was sure I would never get it up by Halloween. I also hated the fact that I had rushed into the ending. This has happened before- the minute I am writing up the very last paragraph and then the sentence and the last word, I can't wait to finish it off.
I put it away in a separate hidden folder, so I wouldn't be reminded of the mistakes I had made with this story. Then yesterday, I picked it up again, trying to get a few edits done with a critical eye and discovered that my initial analysis of my own story had been wrong.
The story and the plot did in fact read well and I had been too hasty in critiquing my own work. I read the whole thing in one go, rectified the grammatical errors, rewrote a few parts and found the story satisfactory.
Phew!
I learned that taking two days after writing up the story to do your own edits is a huge mistake. The story is too fresh in my mind then and I may find some parts not aligning with my vision. So yes, a week at least works for me to do the editing.
Now the formatting part....still have to do that and then I'll be all ready to put it up tomorrow. Smashwords or Amazon Kindle? Have to decide which one to pick.
The cover is done, the story is done....so excited!
Then and there, I decided to discard the whole story. There were just too many mistakes and I was sure I would never get it up by Halloween. I also hated the fact that I had rushed into the ending. This has happened before- the minute I am writing up the very last paragraph and then the sentence and the last word, I can't wait to finish it off.
I put it away in a separate hidden folder, so I wouldn't be reminded of the mistakes I had made with this story. Then yesterday, I picked it up again, trying to get a few edits done with a critical eye and discovered that my initial analysis of my own story had been wrong.
The story and the plot did in fact read well and I had been too hasty in critiquing my own work. I read the whole thing in one go, rectified the grammatical errors, rewrote a few parts and found the story satisfactory.
Phew!
I learned that taking two days after writing up the story to do your own edits is a huge mistake. The story is too fresh in my mind then and I may find some parts not aligning with my vision. So yes, a week at least works for me to do the editing.
Now the formatting part....still have to do that and then I'll be all ready to put it up tomorrow. Smashwords or Amazon Kindle? Have to decide which one to pick.
The cover is done, the story is done....so excited!
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