Nothing is sacred when editing
Nothing is sacred when editing
Especially your self-importance.
Good afternoon, writers, readers and artists. We’re deep into the season of mists and rain in the Northern Hemisphere, which might explain the sarcasm explosion on Substack. I’ve shared some in the Notes from the Stack section below. In the meantime, I am screaming ‘Aaargh!’ every so often from my office as I edit my short story collection.
Will you help me pick a favourite tale for the Top In Fiction 2024 Recap? I’ve selected three recent favourites and removed the paywall so newcomers to this Substack can read them. Please vote in the poll at the end of this post.
Editing beyond the obvious
I spent some time this weekend working on my short story collection. It went well—I winced less than expected. However, I removed most of my microfiction from the collection.
Why?
The fewer words you have to play with, the more narrow your focus is on the moment you want to capture. If a novel is a 5-course meal, microfiction is the equivalent of a single bite - which means you get one chance to pack in the flavour.
It’s a fun challenge but a hard one to do well. When you have 100 or 200 words, you are tempted to reach for the punchline, the joke or the surprise twist. It’s entertaining but rarely conveys the depth or clarity the best microfiction offers. There’s a reason why I’m in awe of writers who do it on here consistently. Writing 100 words well usually means practicing with 100,000 words beforehand.
I found myself punching depth with my short stories, too. Beyond the grammar and spelling, I kept asking myself: ‘What’s going on here?” There’s the plot, and then there’s the emotional story arc underneath, driving the whole thing forward.
It’s been the source of many “WTF” writing moments in Plotted Out, but I sat down and consciously searched for it while editing. In every case, when a story felt odd or incomplete, it was because I rushed the people into a decision or action at odds with their arc.
It was a depressing thing to realise. I cared about these characters, dammit!
It also means I am doing a lot of rewriting.
If you are a fellow writer on this list, please comment below. I’d love to know what questions drive your editing process and how your work evolved.
Notes from the Stack
This should be a horror prompt.
Why confine yourself to just one stereotype?
Yep. The hands are a giveaway.
Which one are you?
Short Story Poll
I need your help choosing a recent story for the TiF recap. Please vote for your favourite from the three below.
Have a great week.
Nat
My main challenge when editing is that I have the whole story in my head, and know the characters thoughts. So sometimes I open the draft to edit and realize “I didn’t wrote down that scene” I saw it hapoen and know where it fits but is not on the draft ( urgh noises). And similarly I read it after letting it rest for a couple days and realize never in the story I mentioned the character has ruby red eyes… I saw them on every scene and I knew it, but never told anyone.