As you can tell by my continual posting (a.k.a. rambling) on this blog, I am learning a great deal from the entire process of going back over the Book with Amanda and revisiting our old work. It is teaching me a surprising amount about writing, as well as about myself. The problem is, after all this thinking, I’ve come to discover that I’ve been looking at this step of the process from the wrong angle!
I have always been told to pay attention, think before I act or speak, and that learning is one of the most important parts of life. I live by these rules (most of the time…), but what I am finding in the writing and editing process is that thinking too hard – unless done strategically – won’t accomplish anything except to cause cartoon-like clouds of smoke to billow from my ears.
Thinking the wrong way can hurt both my writing and my editing, and here’s why:
• Writing – if I think too hard, it inhibits the creative flow. Fiction writing takes a huge amount of imagination. When I write too deliberately, it holds back my ability to simply open my mind and let a story pour out (that sounds disturbingly gory to me, now that I’ve said it). Therefore, when it comes to writing, I’d rather just write as fast as my fingers can type and deal with the “details” later.
• Editing – if I think the wrong way, I lose my perspective. I become overly focused on all of the little details so that I can’t see the bigger picture anymore. I’ve only edited a few pages of the Book, so far, and I have already caught myself obsessing over insignificant details when I should be working out the larger issues and then narrowing my focus.
What have I learned? To stop thinking too hard and to think smart, instead. Not very original, I know, but we all learn at our own pace, and this was my time for discovery.
I’ve taken something important from it, though, and that’s all that matters to me. It is as follows: I write from start to finish, but I need to edit from big picture to small picture.
Writing is a process in which I start the story, build it, and bring it to a conclusion (or, in the case of the Book, bring it to a soft-ending since it’s going to be the first of a series).
When I’m editing, I can’t work in the same straight line. First, I need to read it over and remember what I created in the first place. Once I’m very familiar with it, I need to make sure that the main plot line makes sense, develops as it should, and accomplishes all of its goals. Then, I need to work out the sub-plots to ensure that they also make sense and align properly. Once that’s under control, I can start the proofing, to begin my obsession over phrasing, word selection and the dreaded grammar check. See? It’s not a straight line!
If there are any book editors out there – really great ones who know all this already (and then some, I should hope) – I’d just like to take this opportunity to tell you that you have one tough job and you don’t receive nearly enough credit for what you do.
Although I will certainly not be the last editor’s eyes to see the Book before it is published – especially because I’m co-authoring it, so it will need to pass Amanda’s tests, as well – I’m doing my best to make this work as flawless as possible, right from the start. I gotta say, writing is, by far, the easy part…
Note – I found a smiley from my original set that works here. Is it odd that I already feel nostalgic after a few weeks?
Amanda Giasson
Julie B Campbell
Authors' Perspective 
George Sand always wrote at a frenetic pace and edited later. She was working in what we would call a ‘state of flow,’ where her unconscious was unimpeded by a conscious censor and grammar critic. May the Flow be with you!
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Sorry! That should read “Georges Sand.” My flow needs an inner censor!
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