SELF-EDITING

Self-editing is the hardest thing you have to do. You've struggled years to get those 300 pages. You now think you have a novel. After those years of struggle, you can't bear the thought of letting a single precious word go. Usually that is what you need to do to create a working story. Once you write "the end" on your manuscript, self-editing begins.

The key to self-editing is training your eye to recognize the fluff. You do this by reading other peoples' stories. Buy and read the big names in whatever genre you're writing. Analyze the elements of the story -- the character's goals, the conflict, the point-of-view. If you can't do it just by reading, go to your keyboard and type the first scene of your favorite author's book. Note the economy of words in each scene. Then re-read your own novel and start trimming the fat.

If you don't have the patience to analyze books -- and why would you think you could be a writer if you aren't a reader? -- tune your eye to the conflict in the movies you watch. Look at the way the screenwriter creates conflict in each scene. Note how long each scene lasts. A well-crafted movie tells you a world about what the characters are experiencing in a few moments.

Get over the idea that each and every word you write is pure gold. It isn't. The truth is that for beginning writers, most of the writing should be thrown away. There may be gold nuggets, but they're generally buried in tons of silt. You should ruthlessly cut the parts of each scene that don't advance your character's goal. If you're three chapters into your novel before the real action starts, throw away the first two chapters and rework the opening paragraph of the third so that the story starts on page one.

Do this with your whole story, scene by scene. If it doesn't work, discard it. After you've discarded the scenes that don't work, prune the remaining scenes paragraph by paragraph. You may not be able to do it the first time you write a scene, or the second, or the third, but this is the test of a true writer. If you can't, or won't, do the hard work to make your novel the best it can be, then maybe you're not meant to be a published writer.

For many beginners, the first readers are their fellow writers in a writers' groups. When they tell you that a scene isn't working, listen. They represent not only their own point of view, they represent a substantial number of potential readers. Boring to them? It will bore other people. Too wordy for them? Too wordy for other readers as well. Vague or confusing to them? Ditto for other readers.

A good book to help you clean up your scenes is Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Another essential book for writers is Strunk and White -- The Elements of Style. Read those two books; apply them. Clean up your prose. But, if you can't edit yourself, then turn your work over to someone who can. Very few manuscripts make it into print without ruthless editing. Even this article was edited by another writer, and it is much better for that second set of eyes.

Roger Paulding, author of The Pickled Dog Caper, scheduled for a Fall 2005 release by Panther Creek Press

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