The joys (or otherwise) of editing

I was talking to a group of writers the other day about editing. I know some writers love editing (like me) and some hate it and that was reflected in the conversation.

But like it or loathe it, editing is important. So what should you be looking to achieve? Well, editing is part technical (grammar, punctuation, spellings etc) but also about standing back and asking a question: does my story really work?

Major considerations for the writer when doing that include:

Does it have a strong idea and does that idea work in the vehicle you have chosen?

Does it tell the story?

Does it have sense of people/are the characters real?

Is the dialogue realistic?

Does it have sense of place?

But also:

1 Is it boring?

2 Does it have pace or are there areas when it is slow?

4 Have you given the reader enough information?

5 Is it too long. Yes, the story was fine but could it have been told in less words? Would it lose anything or is it crucial for it to be 3000 words? Is it tightly written, did you use 50 words when you could have used 25 and done the same job, five episodes/chapters when four would have done fine?

These are the tough questions, the questions which take it from a decent story to one that sings.

John Dean