Editing

I hate editing.

No it's true. Heck, you've probably noticed your share of errors and misplaced punctuation scattered all throughout this website. It's not that I hate the idea of editing, far from it. The idea of it is sound, going through and polishing a thing and making it better is a good thing. It's arguably a necessity even if you want to display something you've done to the world.

I mean, this extends far beyond just writing stories too, its in all kind of things. If you're going to do some public speaking, it's good to get some practice in of your material in. If you're going to do some stand up comedy, you should know you material. Editing is a bit like that, it's the art of taking what you have done, and polishing it.

It's not quite the same as practice, because practice is something we gain by doing usually before we endeavored in whatever thing we were trying to do. Editing comes after. It's the polish, the presentation, the plating of a fine cooked meal.

I understand it's value.

I just hate doing it.

It's so... dull. My poor brain just doesn't like to live in that space, it wants to keep going, keep creating. It wants to move. It doesn't want to go back over ground it's already walked over. Maybe it's my ADHD speaking. Maybe it's sloth. I dunno.

But the long short of it is this, of every aspect of this creating process, editing is my least favorite. Or at least it is at this present moment while I am attempting some last minute edits of stories as I put them up on the website. When it comes time to do some marketing, I'll probably hate that more. It's really a very fluid list of things I don't like.

One of the reasons why I don't like it is that I'm not very good at it. See, I wrote the stuff, and unless it's sat in my folders for long enough for me to have forgotten most of it, I will still read what I intended to write, and not what's actually written. I'll gloss right over the missing coma, or the extra coma, blunder right over the repeated word, and miss the incorrect word choices. Because I know what I meant to say, and I'll see that rather than what's actually there.

To combat this, I've taken to reading my work out loud. Verbalizing it seems to help force me to notice what is actually there, and makes my editing a bit crisper.

The second reason is that if I want to get a professional to do it, and really make it shine, it will cost me an arm and leg.

I'm broke yo.

It's why I built this website myself.

Because I couldn't afford someone to do it for me.

Indecently, it's also why I'm really good a fixing things. It was cheaper to just figure it out than get a new one.

One day, I'd love to be able to just send off all my editing to someone to do for me. And make my covers. And do my marketing. And polish my desk.

You know, normal stuff.

Well. Maybe one day.

For now, I do my best, I make no promises in regards to quality, but I do promise, I am actually trying. Even as it slowly drives me insane, I am trying.