It’s Not the Writing…It’s the Editing

You are probably wondering what I could possibly mean by the title of this post. I suppose it is mostly to readers out there. Some authors have written similar posts, but I guess I’ll add my two cents worth.

Readers constantly wonder why it takes books forever to come out while they wait impatiently for the next book in the series or the next series, etc, etc. Despite how indie publishing does speed up some of the process, but not the editing.

Some authors write faster than others. I can write pretty fast when I don’t have to factor in marketing time and that kind of stuff, but anyway… The majority of the time spent by the waiting of the readers is the editing. Once we get done writing the story, we must put it through the editing gauntlet:  but our edits, the edits of beta readers/critique partners, and last but not least, the editors. With the edits comes the rewrites and more readthroughs by us the authors.

If we were ever lax on our edits, you the readers would know…in a heartbeat. You would know we were off our game and wondered why what happened to us in this particular book. You can spot a rush-job on editing from a mile away.

You would thank us later. The wait is more worth your while and your time.

It also takes a lot of time to make sure no more improvements can be made and everything fits together as it should. In my case it also factors in illustration design, etc, but that usually  isn’t much of an issue.

To me it’s still the editing.

It is the most ‘unfun’ part of the process, but it is the most important. It is unfun not because of finding the faults and improving them; it is unfun because it is not creative. There is nothing creative about it. We are looking at the more technical side of the process.

Of technical stuff, the nuts and bolts of writing and grammar are not as fun as chemistry and physics, but it is very necessary. I did very well in language arts, but that doesn’t mean it was my favorite. I loved the creative writing aspect of it, but in order to do that, you have to know the basics. The basics of anything may not be as interesting as the advanced stuff, but it is the fundamentals that we build upon and hold everything together. That’s the way it is with everything.

After we through with the editing then we go to the other technical stuff, but it doesn’t take as long.

Also through each editing process we go through we grow as writers and learn new things. We also strengthen our weaknesses.