The Edits

(or why you shouldn't be afraid to cut, cut and cut again)

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

This probably won’t delight those of you who are finishing your first novels (though typing The End does prompt a unique dopamine hit). But writing is not the most important skill in creating a novel. It’s not even the thing that separates a great writer from a so-so one: editing is.

Just as a good editor can turn an incoherent mess of shots into an Oscar-winning film, so the work from this point on is what changes your vomit draft, (horrible term but often fitting) into the polished and re-polished piece of literary finery that will make your name and keep you on library bookshelves forever.*

I’m deep in this stage just now, so it’s high in my mind. I finished writing my latest novel at the end of last year. When I tell readers I’ve just finished a new one they look expectant, as if it must surely be on the shelves in a matter of weeks. For non-publishing types, it’s always a surprise when you then tell them it’s probably going to be another nine months to a year before they can read it. Some of that is marketing, negotiating space on shelves, coming up with a good cover and title (more on these another time). But an awful lot of it is just … editing.