Edits, Shmedits July 30, 2007

Here’s something I didn’t give much thought when I was a newbie writer: where there are assignments, there will (usually) be edits.

 I was in for a rude awakening the first time I turned in a story to an editor, who was also a friend of mine, and she turned right back around and said (in so many words, and very nicely) “Yeah, umm, this has got some issues.”

 She was totally right, but it still stung. I’d worked hard on that article; every little phrase had seemed to flow. Now I was being told that not only was my prose imperfect, but so was my basic thesis. Oh, and my biases (everybody’s got ‘em) were showing in a too-major way, and compromising the helpfulness of the article.

 I was grateful that the first edits came from a friend, because I didn’t freak out and think “Oh no! She hates me, I suck!” I knew this editor liked me personally AND thought I was a good writer. It made it much easier the next time around, and the next, and the next, to face edits from other faceless editors on the other side of an internet connection somewhere, without taking them personally. Still, I didn’t exactly relish getting my story back all marked up, so to quell the dread I sometimes felt when facing a lot of suggestions and questions in CAPITALS or red type, I started going through a little edit ritual: first, I’d open the document, scan it quickly to get the jist of the suggestions, and deal with anything I thought seemed very easy to fix right off the bat. Then I’d close the file and give the meatier edits a little time to sink in. The next day, I’d re-open the file and work my way through the edits, point by point. If there were more interviews to be done or major changes to be made, I usually found I could face them much more easily when I’d given myself a bit of time and distance from that original read-through. I don’t need to do this every time anymore, but sometimes I still revert to this old tried-and-true technique for facing a big revision with confidence instead of dread.

Revisions still aren’t my favorite part of the job–in fact, both Toni and I are in the middle of edits that are making us tear our collective hair out–but the more I do them, the more they become just another part of the process, and not a big, hairy, “Why don’t they like my writing?” ordeal like it once was. All stories can benefit from a good editor, and it’s important to look at your relationship with your editor as just that–a partnership that will produce the best possible story, not them trying to throw their weight around, or a battle of you-against-the editor in a fight over which words actually make it to the page. On the other hand, sometimes magazines are well-known for putting writers through an editorial wringer due to too many cooks (editors) in the kitchen (passing the story around for their own shot at marking it up). The more stories you revise, the easier it becomes to tell the difference.

 Anyway, feel free to steal my method for easing into edits, or if you have your own process or philosophy, we’d love to hear about it–so comment away!

–Meagan