113: 3 Mindset Shifts Required to Edit Your Work

 

Editing can feel like a daunting process, but it doesn't have to! Learn the three mindset shifts that will make it so much easier to edit your own work. 

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3 Mindset shifts required to edit your work

I'm excited that you're here and excited to talk to you about editing, editing your work. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. I've shared this before on the podcast, but a writer friend and I joke that there are two types of writers there are the writers who love writing, they love getting the first draft out. And then they hate editing. And then there are writers who kind of hate getting the rough draft out the writing part. And then once they get to editing, like that's what they love. I'm one of those type of writers, I don't hate writing. I don't hate getting the first draft out. But it's definitely kind of a love hate relationship. And then once that draft is out, and I get into editing, that's when the fun begins. I love that part of the process.

 

And it's a joke, of course, because you know, there are writers who are somewhere in the middle, they love both parts equally, it's just something funny that we joke about. And I've actually, I really feel like I've noticed that with a lot of writers that some writers really, really hate the editing process. So if that's you, that's okay, I'm going to present you with a few mindset shifts that will hopefully help in this process. Because editing your work is such an important component of writing, there are people who believe that editing is actually more important than writing I mean, which sounds silly, because it's like you have to write the draft in order to have anything to edit. But what they what they mean why they say that is editing really shapes, the story editing shapes, the sentences that you have on the page, it really makes the book it makes the story. Without that you just have kind of a well, very messy, rough draft.

 

And I also wanted to talk about this because I have had a few coaching clients who have either have just gone through the editing process or are about to go through the editing process. And it kind of brings up some feelings for them about editing their their work. And so I've been having some conversations with clients lately about this process. And the first thing I want to say the first shift that I want to talk about is that editing is a skill, just like writing, if you think about writing the first draft, that's a skill as well, you're not going to be an expert, Master Editor, the first time that you edit your rough draft, you're just not it's not possible. It's like it's like with writing the first draft, you're not you know, someone who's never written before is not going to sit down and write an absolute masterpiece, the very first time that they do it like in one sitting. That's just not how that works.

 

Editing is a skill. And it's something that you have to practice. And over time, the more that you do this, the more than you are going to get used to your work, you're going to you're going to get used to editing your work, you'll start to become familiar with the things that you do that you have to fix in your writing. For example, something that I always do in a rough draft is my characters are always nodding and shrugging, when they when I don't know what to have them do in a scene, which is fine, because I know I'm gonna go back and fix it. But early on, I remember reading like a scene I had written and being like, Oh, wow, I didn't do that intentionally. I didn't know I was doing it. But I realized the characters are just standing around nodding and shrugging the whole time, like I need to have them doing some other things. So that's just an example where now I know that that's something I do and I need to watch for it and make sure that I go back and correct that.

 

Or I can tend to have characters who are like a main character who sometimes is a bit flat on the first draft. Even if I've done work on the character, even if I've really become clear in my mind about who the character is. They can just appear a little bit flat and a little bit mild and kind of vague on the page. So I know that that's something I have to go through and watch me go through and fix in subsequent subsequent drafts in in my editing process. So all this to say you're gonna get familiar with what your unique kind of tweak, tweaks, your unique sort of quirks are as far as writing goes. And you're going to get better at editing those things. The more that you do it part of this is really just honing your eye honing your editorial eye, and again, it's just Something that comes with practice. So you really can't expect to be an expert editor right out of the gate.

 

And this leads me to my second point, which, which is really something that all of us know. But I need you to hear this anyway, because it's super important. And I really want this to sink in. We cannot be objective 100% objective about our own work. So we need to stop striving for that. Yes, there are hacks and tricks that we can do to make it look like you know, to make it seem like we're looking at our work for the first time. Like, maybe if you write in Microsoft Word, maybe edit in Google Docs, maybe you change the font, or you change the spacing on your document, just so that it looks different when you're starting to edit. That's something that I do, and it definitely helps. But we are so close to it, we've spent so much time with this work in progress, that we can't be neutral and objective about it and approach it with a completely fresh set of eyes. I mean, we just can't edit our own work that objectively, because what can happen, I mean, I talked about the like, you know, we've spent so much time with it.

 

So there's that emotional component of it. But also, we sometimes we know what we want to communicate, we know what we want to convey in terms of a description of something or how tense a scene is, or whatever it might be, we know what we're intending, because we can see it or we can read it in our mind. And so when we read it on the page, we might sort of fill in the gaps and assume that that's what's on the page that that is what is has been written. But that's not always the case, those things don't always match up to talking about my own character issue where sometimes on my rough draft, my characters might be a bit flat, I know what I want, I have a very clear idea, usually, well, especially by the end of the first draft, I have a very clear idea of who my main character is. And so it's easy for me when I read my rough draft for me to just fill in the gaps and assume that this character is operating the way that I want them to in my head, even though they aren't really doing that, like on the page in the actual manuscript.

 

So that's another reason why it can be tricky for us to to edit our own work. So as long as you're aware of the fact that you're never going to be completely objective, then that's fine. It's not I'm not presenting this as like a will, you're never going to be good at editing your own work. So don't bother, that's not the point. The point is just to recognize a limitation that we all have no matter how talented of a writer or an editor you are. Which leads me to point number three, tip number three, which is that when you are getting feedback, keep an open mind. Because we can't be objective about our own work completely. It is such a good idea to get feedback from other people. And I've talked about this before it this does not have to mean that you get 10 beta readers for your manuscript. This doesn't have to be like anything super structured or formal, but at least let one other person, look at it before you publish, or query or whatever else is next for you after you, you know, after you write your book. And not just, you know, let someone read it, but be open and receptive to their feedback.

 

Their feedback might be nothing really intense, it might just be oh, this is great. I loved it. And okay, that's fine. But if you're asking someone for feedback, you have to be willing to hear criticisms, or, or a critique or something that might make you uncomfortable that might make you defensive, that might make you a little sad, even like, Oh, really, this isn't working. I thought this was working when I read it, dang. Now, that's not to say that you have to accept every bit of critique or feedback that someone gives you like you can listen, and then decide if that's something that resonates with you. There's a kind of a gut check that I do. Whenever I'm getting feedback from anyone I can tell in my body, whether or not something lines up for me. If someone gives me a suggestion about something like the character issue, let's say where maybe there's a scene or chapter where my main character is just sort of passive and flat, and they're not really doing much. And that could be the feedback that this person gives me about that whether it's an agent, a friend, a critique, partner, whatever.

 

When I get that piece of feedback, because I'm already aware of my character issues, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to have trouble with it. When I get that feedback. There's this feeling in my body where it's like cuz it's almost kind of like this resigned feeling like, Ah, shit. Yeah, I have a suspicion that that was that was going to be an issue. Or I was worried about that. Yeah, thanks for kind of confirming that, that that generally happens to me every once in a while I will get a suggestion about something where it just, it doesn't feel negative, it doesn't feel like I'm resigned at all, it just feels like, Huh? Oh, no, I don't I don't think I agree with that, I don't think I'm gonna take that suggestion. And it's not a big to do, it's not a big like, dramatic feeling in my body, it's just, I don't really, I don't really agree with that I don't see where they're coming from, or I see where they're coming from. But that doesn't make sense with this story. I don't want to have my plot go this way or my character go this way. So I'm just gonna ignore that.

 

So this might be something that you have to kind of practice if you're just starting out. But it really is about being open and receptive to feedback, if you are getting someone else to give you that feedback. It's been an interesting process for me, and I've talked about this in another episode as well, that when I was taking writing classes, and there were sort of a critique element where we would read something that someone had written and then offer them our feedback, it was an interesting exercise to just watch how the person handled it. Because every once in a while someone would get incredibly defensive. And they would want to argue with whoever was giving them feedback. And again, you do not have to take people's suggestions, like you can listen to what someone is telling you and then decide, I'm not going to make any of those changes. That's ridiculous. Like, that's fine.

 

But yeah, it was just interesting to watch, people sometimes get a bit defensive, and youcould tell that they were uncomfortable, which makes sense, it's an uncomfortable position to be in, but they did not have an open mind, it was pretty clear. So with all of this, I want you to keep in mind the end goal, the end result of all of this, why are you editing your work? Why are you getting feedback? Why are you even doing this, you're doing this to make the story better. And you're also doing this, to make yourself a better writer. If that is the end goal, if your result that you want is to be a good writer, then you have to go through this process. And you have to get used to editing your own work, you have to flex this muscle, just you know, do it over and over. And it's just part of it. So no matter how you feel about editing, whether you're excited for it, or you're dreading it, or somewhere in the middle, keep that end result in mind.

 

That is what you are getting out of the editing process is you are improving your story in so many different ways, not just putting a comma instead of a period, but improving the characters, the plot, the pacing, all of that. And you're also making yourself a better stronger writer. The more that I edit my own work, the more that I improve as a writer, I 100% believe that I'm also a better writer because I edit other people's work that all every manuscript that I work on every client that I work with, I improve as a writer, that's that's contribute that contributes to it as well. So that's another thing I guess is like, you know, just kind of a thing you can do if you want to be beta beta reading for people, if you want to be looking at other manuscripts like that can help you as well, to really start honing that editorial eye even further.

 

So good luck with your editing. If this is something that you're doing or going to be doing soon, I promise, it's not as scary as it sounds, it's just a matter of getting in there, keeping that end result that end goal in mind. And recognizing and remembering that this is a skill that you have to continue to develop. I do have a short training that is called how to edit your novel, there's going to be a link in the description of this episode to my stance store, which is where you can check out the different like offerings that I have. And it's a really, it's a pretty short actionable trading. It's like 30 or 35 minutes. And it talks you through my draft editing method, like the five draft editing method that I suggest.

 

So it talks you through that and talks you through some more like hacks and tricks on how to actually edit your novel because we didn't really touch on that in this episode. And then also just talks a little bit more about about some mindset pieces because again, it the mindset part is is important as well as the strategy of how to do that. So if you want that more tactical like how to actually edit, definitely check out that training. It's you know yours you can watch it As soon as you purchase it and watch it again and again. So, all right again, good luck with your editing. Thank you for watching, and I will see you next week. Thank you so much for listening.

Katie Wolf