A Little Behind the Scenes Moment on Editing

I have just received two different sets of edits: one set for my short story, “Too Beautiful a Creature,” and one for my novel, Fury’s Fate. So… what now? What does a writer do with the notes? What are the notes like?

The Notes

The notes come from an editor or a group of editors. In this case, I technically received four sets of notes from two editors. There are line edits and developmental edits for both my short story and my upcoming book. It’s not typical, per se, to do line editing and developmental editing at the same time, but I am admittedly a fairly clean writer (chalk it up to my academic writing background) and it’s what works for my collaborations with these particular editors. I in no way expect that it would be similar with another editor. I think editors have a general process for working with writers, but from what I understand, the process is altered slightly for each editor who has their own method of working through a manuscript.

Obviously, with having both line edits (the nitty-gritty grammar, syntax, structure, punctuation revisions) and developmental edits (character arcs and development, settings, details, etc.), the notes vary. Both are done in the actual manuscript, so I am the proud owner of a couple of Word documents that have all kinds of changes tracked. (Word’s track changes feature is definitely a common tool!) The developmental stuff is in comments in the margins or in the general notes of the email that comes with my manuscript file. The line edits are already changed—that’s what a line editor does. They go through and make the changes to the text to make it flow better, for the sake of a reader.

I haven’t analyzed enough of my line edits enough to know what my common issues are, but knowing myself as a writer (which is difficult knowledge to ignore when you not only study writing but also teach it), I suspect that wordiness is an issue, as well as overuse of commas. I sometimes write like an academic, which for me means writing an overly complicated version of a sentence that could be simpler. Like many writers, I also have tendencies: I use the word “just” too often, my characters nod so much they’re like bobbleheads, and my sentences tend to be long and possibly drawn-out. Oh, and in true elder emo fashion, my characters are sighing left and right. Just sighing all over the place. So unnecessary.

All these, if left, could be super annoying or far too redundant. Because my writing is my writing, though, I struggle to gain enough distance from it to notice these things. Also, with my tendencies being what they are, I may not even notice what’s happening. This is where an editor, like the #bossbabe Brittany I’ve talked about before, comes in and does their thing. It’s magical.

I do want to take a moment and say that some notes are just reactions to the text. These are, frankly, amazing. I love knowing how someone—anyone—reacted to a particular part of my story. It brings me great joy. This joy is then clung to as the more tedious work must be done.

So… where does a writer begin?

I’m assuming writers have their own processes for this. I handle the developmental or large-scale stuff first. I read through the comments, consider them, take a bit of time to let them sink in, and then I take action. I do what needs to be done. I don’t make changes blindly, though. I really only do what I agree needs to be done. It is my story, after all.

Line edits are a bit easier to do, in my opinion. It’s less creative and more just nodding or shaking my head at whatever’s been changed or proposed to be changed. Since I don’t have a great grasp on proper grammar, I tend to mostly take the expert’s advice on these things. I know what I’m good at, and grammar isn’t it.

What happens when edits are done?

The manuscript goes back to the editors. This part of things is a bit of a mystery to me, admittedly. I’m assuming they just read things over and do another pass. Remember, I had to go back and add things because of the developmental suggestions, so those will need to be line edited, anyway. Also, another look ensures that nothing was ignored or missed in the first or second pass. There’s a lot of double-and-triple-checking of work in writing, editing, and publishing. The end goal is a product, though, so I think that level of detail and attention makes sense.

How long does the editing take?

It depends, which I know is a frustrating answer. Let me explain. I have a couple of weeks to turn around edits on the story. I have a bit longer for the novel. Makes sense given the scope of the work, I think, but it also has to do with the publication dates. The short story will be in a September publication, and the novel is set to be published in October. I think every publishing company, magazine, website, etc. has their own process and associated timelines. I can only speak to the timelines I have, and they’ve been generous. Yes, deadlines are a bit anxiety-inducing, anyway, but I have not felt that I’m being asked to do an amount of work that is impossible for the timeline. And I manage to do all of this on top of a full-time teaching job and a part-time teaching job. So it’s not terrible. And even if it was, it would be rough for the amount of time it took to get the editing done, and then it would be over. Short-term discomfort. I could handle that.