Writing Thoughts

[meridian_rose]

Or actually editing thoughts.
I finished the first draft of the Small Fandom Big Bang and got assigned an artist (yay) and sent them the rough draft and a link to screencaps.
I've since started editing the draft - even when done it'll need a second edit at minimum, text to speech preferably. Probably a third final edit after that. You know how editing goes.

There are some bits I don't hate (yay again) and some things I've amended slightly and some minor additions. I keep making notes to check on bits later in the story as I think of them.
It's going quite well. However the worst thing is how many errors there are. Wrong words, sentences that don't make sense because I amended them but not fully, lack of clarity in who is speaking.
It feels, as corvidology said when talking about WiPs, showing your dirty washing.
The artist is also a writer so they 'get' it, but I'm still somewhat embarrassed. I wouldn't have posted it without editing of course but gah, I look incompetent.

Any tales of editing or editing fails that you found embarrassing? Errors you had to scramble to fix after posting? Do you not feel it's a huge deal if there's a few typos in your work?

Comments

[smallhobbit]

That's why I have an understanding beta, who points out where sentences don't make sense and when she hasn't a clue who's doing the speaking. My worst blunder was when I changed the name of one of my characters halfway through - fortunately my beta caught that one. I've given up worrying about the odd type (the ones I correct a year later when I finally spot them) - we do this out of enjoyment, so I don't think anyone worries about small mistakes, especially when I've bought published books and still spotted the odd mistake.

[meridian_rose]

Yes; I don't have a regular beta now so I rely a lot on the text-to-speech which makes me slow down and hear the clumsy/wrong wording or punctuation. Too easy to skim read on a second or third edit!

That's very true. My mum keeps telling me about spelling mistakes in books she's read including one with a completely wrong character name for a page! Those books have been supposedly professionally edited at least once if not multiple times for overall edit and then line by line, and errors still creep in.

I like to do the best I can and by the time this fic is finished and ready to post I'll probably have ironed out the worst errors. I still re-read older work and find minor typos and depending on how bad the error is depends on the level of shame I feel!

[tellshannon815]

That reminds me of reading an interview with some author, I can't remember who, but they'd changed a character from Jack to Edward, done a Replace All, and ended up sending the draft off with sentences like "The Union Edward was flying". Then years later I'd thought of it randomly before reading a book which hinges on something similar - a lot of time is spent searching for a man who doesn't exist because this guy did a Replace All in his wife's diaries, changing his own name to someone else's and that combination of letters had changed another name too. I should have twigged that one sooner.

[meridian_rose]

LOL that's a cautionary tale of "replace all" :D

[lebateleur]

Ugh, you have my commiseration. Editing is perhaps the major thing I struggle with, to the point that I either do it while writing (not ideal from a speed, completion, or plot development perspective) or never progress beyond a first draft because I hate having to revisit them and see all the spots where things need improvement. It's something I'm really trying to work on this year.

[meridian_rose]

Thank you. It is a big deal and yes, better left to the end of a piece - although sometimes you have to alter something if the plot swerves mid-point! - and then you sometimes look at a piece and think hmmm....that needs a lot of work. Maybe later. And it stays a WiP.
I hope you can work on it this year and make progress and tackling the post-first draft blues :)

[colls]

I don't write much outside work anymore, but can relate to the "First Draft Blues". For my fanvids, no one sees the first 2-3 versions. ;P

I once ended up swapping a scene in the first verse only to have seemingly forgotten that I used the same scene in another. Rewatching it over and over I tend to find ALL of it feels like a repeat and miss actual repeats.
Thankfully I caught it before posting because I let it rest for a few days - then watched it a final time before uploading it.


In my work writing, I'll do the thing where I rework sentences and then rearrange them in a way that winds up grammatically incorrect or awkward. If I'm rushed, those might get sent before I catch it and it's embarrassing. The intent is clear, but the email is clearly a draft and my thought process is on display.

[meridian_rose]

Yes, every creative endeavour probably has this issue in some form! What's the saying, "how the sausage gets made"? Before anyone sees the book, video, movie, statue, stage show, there's been plenty of mis-steps and adjustments and it can be messy at times :)

The intent is clear, but the email is clearly a draft and my thought process is on display. Yes, this, exactly. It's embarrassing. But then many people I work with send out emails with little forethought and no proofing so whatever mistakes I make, I take comfort that others have made far worse!

[bleodswean]

Editing really requires distance and that can be hard to achieve with fanfic! So, good onya for diving in and fixing what you find.

[meridian_rose]

Yes, the distance is key. I don't have a very long timeframe but it's been a few weeks and I'm shaping the draft, trying to make it flow.

The text to speech thing really helps because instead of me starting to skim it reads every word and I notice wrong words/clumsy sentences, pauses where there shouldn't be (stray comma/full stop) or the reverse where I need to add punctuation or start a new paragraph. It does give me more distance in a way I find hard to explain, so when I've done such an edit the finished piece feels more "done" somehow, a way of helping me let go of it.

[tellshannon815]

Typos are one thing I always pretend I haven't noticed with other people - I think to some extent that stems from the five years I worked for Umbridge (for context, it was a big thing of hers that she'd tell people off for typos, on at least one occasion sending someone a shitty email about a typo that wasn't actually a typo at all but Umbridge mixing up two people with similar surnames, and yet she made more typos than anyone). I can't bring myself to "be her" and notice.

Since I type mine into Word first before posting anywhere else that does catch some, but there might be things like people's names or something that exists as a word that it doesn't notice. I think the ones I do have to go back and change are where it's veered into the wrong tense.

[meridian_rose]

Word does catch some but yes those things like beard/bread and names are problematic. Wrong tenses are also difficult though when I've used Google docs sometimes it's getting rather smart at noticing and suggesting replacements - a little scarily so!

[under_the_silk_tree]

Editing is a necessary evil. A good beta is worth their weight in gold for sure. I haven't written a lot here lately, but I do remember how cringe-y I would feel reading my writing especially if the scene/fic wasn't working right.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that editing is relatively painless.

[meridian_rose]

It is so necessary. I even have one of the characters complain/acknowledge the necessary evil of editing even academic papers :)
Thank you :) I'm not hating the whole thing, which is win, even if I keep making notes to myself to go back and check/amend plot details that might not work with the later bits I'm reading.