Some people plow ahead and edit during the second and third drafts.


Some people can't write another page or even a paragraph without

editing everything that came before, be it thirty chapters or

thirty paragraphs.

Editing is a skill. I might have it. Still. It was here a minute ago.

But few authors can pass up the invitation to spew their guts

onto the page. Those that can pass it up turn out often to be

those who cannot resist seeing just how many perfect sentences

you can craft.

Either way, it's a bore.

You wanna spill your guts, write a bio.

You wanna joyfully craft perfect sentences,

get a teaching certificate.

Editing is not just the art of getting rid of what the novel

don't need.

It is also the art of seeing what the novel lacks.

A true writer is capable of seeing where there are gaping

holes in the plot or the rhythm that he has no idea what

to do with. This doesn't mean she will plug anything in

there. Sometimes, a novel sings on the notes from the

whistling gaps...



The whole bruhaha in a nutshell: Editing is more noticed when it don't

work than when it does.