Editing for Non-Editors

This is a companion piece to the earlier article Writing for Non-Writers. I’m assuming you’ve written a story, put it away for a bit, and now you’re ready to look at it again.

Editing, like writing, is a huge topic. I’ve focussed on just a few things. Use what works for you and discard the rest.

Exercises

First, some exercises. Read my story Ten Years Gone. What do you think it’s about? Try to summarise this story in a few sentences. Write them down. Can you tighten this summary to even fewer words? Strip it back to the essentials.

Don’t read on until you’ve done this.

Here’s the summary I came up with:

A retired engineer, cynical about the ecological movement, is waiting at a Portsmouth coffee shop for his grandson. He arrives and they spar, because his grandson is very eco-aware. His grandson offers to take him on the Isle of Wight zeppelin, and the engineer begins to see that ecological issues and engineering can coexist in harmony.

And here’s the even shorter version:

An engineer, cynical about ecological issues, is shown by his grandson that the environment and engineering can coexist.

This second version is very spare, very factual, with all juicy details and interesting bits removed. Nevertheless, it still describes the basic structure of the story.

The structure of most stories fits this very broad template: The characters are in a situation. The characters do something. Something changes as a result.

Let’s break this down. A character is a specific person (a ‘retired engineer’, an ‘eco-aware grandson’). A situation is an environment (a ‘Portsmouth coffee shop’) or a state of mind (‘cynical about the ecological movement’). The characters do something (‘arrive’, ‘spar’, ‘offers to take him on the Isle of Wight zeppelin’). Something changes (‘the engineer begins to see that ecological issues and engineering can coexist’).

Pick another story from the Pens of the Earth website and try again to summarise it in a few sentences. Then have a go at a third.

Structure

Now, read your own story. Read it quickly. Forget about spelling, grammar, phrasing – all the nitty-gritty that makes up a sentence. You’re taking the bird’s eye view. You’re trying to determine what your story is about. Now write a summary of your own story. Make it short. Forget all those details you lovingly included.

Does it fit the template? The characters are in a situation. The characters do something. Something changes as a result. I’m going to propose that it should. That might seem restrictive, but really it’s not. The template isn’t a straitjacket, it’s simply a description of what a story is. The characters must do something, otherwise the story is static. Something must change, otherwise what’s the point in telling the story?

At this point, you might want to alter your summary to what you want it to be, rather than what the story actually currently does. You might not. Up to you. The idea is that you should have a firm idea of the structure.

Now, make a copy of your story (or back it up) so you won’t lose anything. No matter how much you change things, you will always have this original version to return to if required.

Make your story honour the summary you’ve written. You can be as creative and subtle as you like, but your characters should do things, and there should be change.

Cutting

Much of editing is about cutting. A wristwatch should have no unnecessary parts, and neither should a story. With that in mind:

Are there any scenes that don’t really contribute towards the story? Cut them. (‘But I love that bit where the characters take time out and go to my favourite sushi restaurant.’ Tough. It doesn’t belong in a story about whale watching.)
Are there any characters that don’t affect the outcome of the story? Cut them. (‘But Aunt Ginnie is hilarious!’ Tough. If she doesn’t belong here, get rid of her; save her for something else.)

Now go through your story again, but instead of the bird’s eye view, take the insect’s perspective. Look at the details. Ponder each sentence and ask yourself:

Does this sentence advance the plot?
Does this sentence tell me something about one of the characters?
Does this sentence give a sense of place?

If the sentence doesn’t do any of these things, try cutting it. Be ruthless. Short stories are not pony tails; they’re crew cuts. Get the scissors out. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Try cutting off the beginning – how late can you start? Try cutting off the ending – how early can you finish? It’s surprising how much cutting a story can take before it collapses.

Now compare the new version to the original. Is it tighter, snappier, more elegant and authoritative? If it isn’t, you can always put bits from the old version back in. Find a balance that satisfies you.

Trust Your Reader

Readers are sensitive and intuitive. They don’t need everything to be explained. They are good at picking up on hints. In the real world, you don’t get to know people because the contents of their mind are explained to you; you infer things from their behaviour, their speech.

Also, don’t tell your reader what to think. This is a particular danger for environmental fiction. Your reader will have their own opinions, and your story should respect them. Show them your view of the world and let them come to their own conclusions.

This is a lot to take in. Editing is a complex, multi-faceted discipline. But it is the best way to make your writing better. As Ernest Hemmingway said, ‘The only kind of writing is rewriting’. Put your work away for a few days, make another backup, have another go. With each round of revision you will make it better.

Getting Feedback

Find someone else to read your story, or better still, two people so you can contrast their reactions. Other writers are ideal, but anyone who reads fiction can be helpful. Ask them to be honest with their feedback (but gentle). Now, brace yourself, because that amazing story you’ve written rarely appears that way to your reader. Pretend that this isn’t your story at all, but someone else’s and that you’ve been given the job of editing it. Ask them to tell the story back to you, so you get a sense of their experience of reading it. Ask them what they liked, what they didn’t like, what confused them.

Don’t get defensive about your work. Simply accept your reader’s comments and write them down. If you feel annoyed, disappointed, deflated (all of which are entirely natural) wait until you have reached a state of calm (maybe a day or two) before analysing the feedback and deciding what changes to make.

Now, look through the feedback and ask yourself – dispassionately, honestly – what would genuinely improve this story. What would bring it closer to that idea you hold in your mind? This is a fine line to tread. You must not shy away from big changes if the story requires them (this will always be your story, no matter how much advice you take from other people). On the other hand, you are not required to take advice simply because it has been given. Trust yourself, but be open. Be humble; be bold.

Submitting

The final stage is to take courage and submit your story to Pens of the Earth! Every submission is read and considered by our whole team of editors, so you don’t have to please just one person. If we accept it, we assign a sympathetic editor who will usually ask for some more edits (so don’t think you’re finished yet!). Once your work is ready, it will be published on our website and promoted via social media.

But all that is in the future. If you have created something and taken the editing seriously, you can already call yourself a writer.