126: Lessons I've Learned About Writing From Editing

 

I've learned so much about writing as a freelance editor and book coach, and this episode goes over some of the best lessons.

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lessons i’ve learned about writing from editing

Hello, welcome to big creative life Podcast. I'm recording this in April, which means my baby has started daycare, Audrey started daycare. And it was very emotional, it was very challenging and difficult. And just the idea of leaving your baby somewhere is so strange. She's almost six months old. She'll be six months old in a couple days. And she's just been here like we haven't I haven't spent any time apart from her. Other than an occasional date night, you know, where my husband and I have gone out and my mother in law has watched Audrey or I don't know if we're on to an appointment or something like she's been here. She's been home with us. And so it's just so strange. Like I, I got home Monday from dropping her off. And I just like walked around the kitchen and like the living room for a bit. I was like, I just I don't know what to do, or she's not here and it feels so strange. But it's the end of the first week, I'm gonna go pick her up in like, a half hour or so.

 

And I feel so good. Much better. She has come home so happy. Like when I pick her up, she's happy. She's content. She's She's eating, you know, we sent I send bottles of pumped breast milk and formula, both for her to daycare, she's drinking her bottle, she's taking naps. The first few days weren't great. But Wednesday and Thursday or better. Anyways, I'm just relieved, I'm relieved that she's happy and seems content. And I just have so much more brain space, like so much more time in my schedule to get things done, which is awesome. I think I didn't realize how draining it was. I mean, I knew it was draining, to have her home and to try to work and take care of her. But it's just it's such a godsend that we got this spot. It's insane. Y'all take care. Everyone talks about the price of daycare, which is astronomical and insane. But also the availability like all of the daycares around us are have a two year waitlist, the place that we got into is not exactly close to us. And we only had to wait a year for it. So it's crazy.

 

But anyways, all that to say, I'm very excited. I'm doing well. I'm happy I'm in a good place. And so as Audrey So I want to talk about some lessons and some things that I've learned. Since I started editing, I got a really interesting question from someone on social media that prompted me to really reflect on this. They they I don't remember exactly what the comment was. But it was something like, do you find that as an editor? It's affected your own love of writing, or how you view writing, which I thought was such an interesting question. And no one has really asked me that before. I think people have asked about reading and being an editor.

 

It's definitely affected my reading. I don't read as often as I used to just because I read when I'm editing client manuscripts. It's different. Of course, when I'm editing, I'm editing, I'm not just reading. And then when I'm reading, it's not like I'm editing but still it just something about it when I've been editing all day. Sometimes it's hard to pick up a book. So I don't read as often as I used to, which is a big bummer. But, you know, it's just part of the part of the deal. I do still read a little bit. And but yeah, no one has really asked me that about writing.

 

So anyways, it prompted, you know, my own reflection about how much more my appreciation for writing has grown and what I've learned, and the things some of these things that I'm mentioning might be things that you would, things that writers would learn or realize in their own writing journey. But some of these are things that I truly think I only learned and discovered because of editing because I've been working with writers for a number of years now. So I'm gonna go through a few different things that I have learned. Okay. I feel like this is something I've mentioned a lot recently. But I want to reiterate this because it's really important, especially for new writers. There is no one right way to write a book. There are so many strategies. There are so many outlining methods. There are so many different approaches. And there's a lot of content out there on social media that tries to sell you on. No, this is the right way to do it. This is the only way to do it.

 

And that's just not true. Especially if it's coming from someone who has never worked with other writers before. They're only telling you what worked for them. And that's great, that's wonderful. But then they're not in a position to be saying like this will work for all writers. Even, I've even changed my tune a little bit on this. When I first started editing, I did think that some sort of outlining was more necessary. I'm not a huge outliner. So I was never like, you have to do this outline this way. But I was like, yeah, it's best if you do an outline. Now, I've relaxed on that a bit. And I think for a lot of writers, and outline can be very helpful.

 

But there are some writers who just feel restricted with an outline. And those writers just want to start writing and see where the story goes. And they're okay with maybe having to do a little bit more legwork at the end to edit their book and make things fit together. They know that that's part of the process. So it's not, it's not a matter of it being wrong. It's just different. So yeah, this is this is why I don't preach dogma about story structure or writing, I do think it's helpful to have several points identified, I talk a lot about developing characters. And I do have a preferred outlining method that I offer to my coaching clients that I offer people if they're interested that I think can, there's some flexibility built into it.

 

But outside of that, I just, there's so many ways to do it. And there's no one right approach. And part of the fun for me working with coaching clients specifically is getting to see how they approach this, how they approach the writing process, because when I'm working with editing clients, they've already completed the book, they're not updating me on their progress. They're not drafting it, as we're working together, it's already done. So they might share a little bit about the writing process, but I really don't have a sense of what their drafting process is like.

 

So for coaching clients, it's really cool to get a real time look at how different people do this differently. And yet the end goal, and the end result is the same. It's a book, it's a first draft. So anyways, just remember that there's no one right way to do this. Okay, next thing on my list is that crafting a beautiful sentence is one skill. But telling a good story is another skill completely. Some writers, some very lucky, blessed, talented writers have both skills, and they're equally solid, they're very strong at the line level craft, the prose is beautiful. But they can also tell a really good compelling story and great plot and great characters. Some people are very strong at the telling a good story part, but maybe they're maybe their sentence structure is a little bit more basic, which again, is I'm gonna say this a lot in this episode is not wrong, it's just different.

 

Or maybe they maybe they just break the absolutely, like most beautiful sentences on planet Earth. It's incredibly lush, it's beautiful, if the imagery is amazing, but the story structure isn't quite there or their characters aren't quite developed. And just those those are really two different skill sets. There's, it's like a Venn diagram, they definitely overlap. But I've really come to realize that they can be different skills and the way to get better.

 

It can be it can be a different approach. Well different but also the same, because the way to get better is just to continually do it to practice writing. If you feel like your sentences that you write are very choppy and boring, and all kinds of sound the same. Then work on throwing in different word choices. Look at a thesaurus. Try to vary up your sentence structure so that they're not all short sentences, try to vary how long they are. And if you are someone who feels like you've got that down, your sentences are great, but then the actual story itself isn't very good. Then look at story structure.

 

Maybe for you doing an outline for your project is best. Read a lot and analyze how different authors are creating different stories, how they're telling different stories, how are they pulling you as the reader into the story? How are they getting you immersed in it? It's not just beautiful sentence after beautiful sentence after beautiful sentence. Yes, that's wonderful. We can appreciate that. But you need to give us an emotional connection to the characters. You need to take us on a compelling journey in the plot. There can't be big inconsistencies in what's going on things can't be confusing. So that's something that you can pay attention to when you read to see how different writers to different authors are doing this next point.

 

Something I've learned from my own experience, but also from working with writers and a lot of new writers. I have some writers who have written dozens, well not dozens... that I edit their manuscripts for them. But a lot of my clients are first time writers like the first book, second book, stuff like that. Beginning writers, new writers often have blind spots about their writing. And that's okay. That's to be expected because they're new writers. That was the case with me. I've talked him on on the podcast before about when I was first starting to write before I even started writing a book, I wrote a number of short stories. And I remember the sense of frustration that what was on the page, like, didn't quite match what I had in my head. But I didn't know why.

 

It's like I couldn't pinpoint or articulate what wasn't working in the story to have what was on the page not be that good, and not match up what I wanted it to be in my head. And before I got to that point, though, like the very first short story that I started writing, I thought it was great. Like I have talked about this also on the podcast to how I sent one of my very first short stories to the Paris Review, and like other really, really, really prestigious publications. And because I just thought it was great, like I thought it was really solid. And then months later, or a year later, or something, I looked back at that story. And I was like, Oh, this is not, this is not very good. But it's okay. The point is, it's okay. You cannot expect to be a brilliant, award winning, great American novelist, the very first time that you sit down to write, you have to learn as you go and get better. And it sometimes doesn't take very long to, for you to see a lot of improvement in your writing and to be able to spot those blind spots. But new writers are going to have them. And that's just part of it. And to some extent, we're always going to have blind spots about our writing, that doesn't necessarily go away.

 

But it gets better the more that you write, you can spot what's working and what's not working in your own writing more accurately or easily, but I still will look at something that I've written. And I'm one day, I'll think like, Yeah, this is pretty good, I feel pretty, I feel pretty solid about this. And then the next day, I'll look back at it. And I'm like, what. So it's just, you know, it's a process. And again, it gets better the more that you do it. So if you are in this space of feeling like that sense of frustration that I mentioned, where it just feels like your writing isn't quite where you want it to be, but you don't know how to make it better the answers to just keep going, you just have to get through that initial beginning phase, where you really start to see improvement, and you start to get better. And you can do all of those things like, you know, reading like a, like a writer, like analyzing what other authors are doing. You can take classes, you can watch content about writing, there are a lot of things you can do to help yourself improve. But ultimately it comes down to writing you have to write to get better.

 

Okay, I have two more points for you. One is, one is that a confused reader will stop reading. If things are confusing in the beginning of your novel, and the reader can't quite make sense of what's going on, they will only follow you to a certain extent, if they trust you to lead them through this. And for things to make sense. And for there to be a payoff, then they can get through that initial confusing hurdle. But if there's not a sense that things are going to get any easier to understand if they can't make heads or tails of what's happening. And maybe you think that you're being mysterious, but they're just confused, they're going to stop reading, they're just going to put the book down.

 

So we don't want that, it's fine to have a little bit of mystery, it's fine to leave some things, you know, suspenseful. And to have a payoff later. I mean, that's the case with like a lot of suspense and mystery and thriller, right. But if the reader just cannot sort out what's happening, or if the magic system, let's say, if you're writing fantasy, if the magic system doesn't make sense, and they're really confused, and there are all kinds of inconsistencies, or, or if you just have Twist after twist after twist after twist, and they cannot get their bearings, they're going to stop reading, because it's just too much work. It's too confusing. And they don't have that trust that you are eventually going to explain all of these things to them.

 

And the other risk of that is that when you do eventually explain things to them, it might just be you dumping all of this explanation and this information on the reader. So this is where it's good to sort out. You know, am I making things too complicated in my story? Am I confusing the reader and by not establishing a baseline of what this world is who these characters are just anything to have the reader latch on to at the beginning. If you don't have those things in place again, a reader is probably just going to stop reading. So it's something to be mindful of.

 

And this is something that I mentioned for new writers specifically, because I think sometimes new writers have this idea that they have to, they have to make things complicated in order to prove that they're good writers in order to prove that they can tell a good story. So things have to be complicated and messy, and it's this thing, but actually, it's this thing is this thing. And that's not the case at all, you do not have to have a super complicated complex world or plot or anything, setting whatever, to tell a good story. And it's not to say that I'm always in favor of simple stories, that's not an either, it's just, there's no reason to unnecessarily complicate things if it's just just for the sake of complicating things.

 

And then the last thing I want to mention something that I've really learned is that writing is one of the biggest growth exercises that you can go through as a person. Writing a book is a profound personal development exercise, it forces you to confront beliefs that you have about yourself, as a person as a creative, you get to deal with your fear of rejection with your fear of being seen with your fear of being not good enough, not talented enough, comparison, procrastination, it brings up so much in people. Every single coaching client that I have worked with editing clients that I've talked to my own experience, like this is just universal. So it's, it's challenging, but it's incredibly rewarding. And I share that because if you are a new writer, you might not know that yet, you might be thinking, I'm experiencing a bit of like perfectionism, or it's hard for me to get started on this book that I really do want to write, why is that? What's wrong with me? Nothing's wrong with you. You're just it's part of the creative process. Trust me.

 

Again, just like with a lot of things I've shared in this episode, it does get better the more that you practice, the more that you write. But it's just one of those things that is going to be a great growth opportunity for you. Because there's the writing part of it. But then there's also the publishing part of it and being confronted with reviews and readers perception of you. Now, I don't have experience with that yet. So that's not something I ever talk about. But I do talk about the being seen and sharing your work with other people, because that's something I have a lot of experience in on both sides of it as a writer sharing my work with someone, but then also as an editor and a coach who gives a lot of people feedback on their writing. So I've experienced it from both ends.

 

Yeah, I hope that was hope that was helpful. There's a lot that I've learned. I mean, this could be an incredibly long episode. But I want to just talk about some things that maybe, again, maybe some of these, you, you, if you're listening to this, and you have started writing already, or you've written a book, maybe you might know these things. But some of these things, I think are really lessons that have been driven home for me because of editing. if again, if I only was worth was talking from my own experience, I don't think I would have really realized all of these things. Because I just wouldn't be exposed to other people's work as much.

 

 So yeah, so as if you are listening to this episode, the week that it's released, it means that novel Jumpstart is officially open for enrollment, which is my eight week program that helps you write the first 50 pages of your book, enrollment opens April 29. And then we start on May 6, it runs may 6 to July 1, the link is in the description of this episode with all the information on who this is for what's included. But basically, it's kind of a hybrid like coaching online course editing program, where you have the coaching where you can drop in every week, I host like office hours and q&a time where you can get coaching and talk through whatever issue you're working through with me. There's the community aspect of it. The online course that you get access to that gives you trainings, and all kinds of things related to writing a novel. But then you also get feedback for me, I will do an evaluation on your first 50 pages after the program is done.

 

So again, it's a great program that has a lot of different components of it, that will be really helpful. If you are early in the process or just want to get started, you have an idea, but you haven't again, you haven't started writing. So check that out with all the information. There are eight spots that are open. And again, like I said, if you're listening to this episode, the week that it's released, I will update my social media. I'll update y'all on spots. As they close. I'll also put it on the website so that you can see on the sales page so that you can see how many spots are left. I only have eight spots open because I am giving feedback to people. So that's why there's only eight. And yeah, let me know if you have any questions about that. I'm so excited. Again, we start may 6. So if you think this is something you're interested in, definitely go check it out. All right. Thank you for listening.

Katie Wolf