I just read a terrific post on one of my favorite blogs... Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds. It was about the editing (revising) an author must do before the book gets sent for editing. If you don't do this step, you should. Go read his post now: Laser, Hacksaw, Spanner, Hammer: A Post About Editing. I'll wait.
I can't stress enough how important this step is. No one spews forth a perfect rough draft of a novel that needs no revision. No one. Every single novel needs this extra step. Sometimes, heck--who am I kidding--most of the time, this step is actually many steps done over and over and over. And Chuck's right... this is where the art happens.
Sure, it's amazing to get all those words out on the page in a rough draft. Not everyone can do that. But to get those words honed and crafted... that's where the actual skill comes in. Getting the rough draft done takes dedication, but revising that rough piece of writing into a real story is art. That's what separates the wheat from the chaff.
Then, when you turn in your piece of word art to your editor, they can polish it so you shine like the celestial being you truly are. Now where did I put my sunglasses?
#ChuckWendig, #editing, #revision, #TerribleMinds, #writing
No comments:
Post a Comment