I am still editing.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a chapter I wrote a couple months ago, flying by the seat of my pants, is actually really good. It adds some serious tension to the plot- always a good thing. All excited by that extra boon, I was then dismayed to find that the sequencing is a little out of order as I’m going to end up cutting almost an entire chapter here soon. That’s going to take some major re-working to get right.
And as school will shortly be upon me (I’m trying to ignore that fact), I started thinking about how many times I’m going to end up reading my manuscript from beginning to end. In high school and college I usually wrote a paper, proofed it once for mechanics, and called it good. When posting at Panhistoria I usually proof a post three or four times before hitting the post button. But there’s one scene in my book that I’ve already edited at least ten times, tweaking it as the rest of the story develops. I just have a feeling that I’ll end up reading through the whole manuscript at least four times- once to write it, once to edit for plot, another time to read it aloud for mechanics, and a final time to make sure it’s as shiny as I can get it.
So, how many times do you edit your work?
At least two full go-overs. I produce the shitty first draft behind closed doors, then I revise it on my own. After that I bring it to my writer's group (if I'm fortunate enough to have one at the time) for critique or at least send it to a couple of writerly buddies. I take their notes and highlight what I like and cross out what I don't and have another go-through of the text. I've also found that it helps if I set a story aside for a few weeks. Then when I read it again, I can make faces at all the stuff that doesn't work that I thought was great at the time :p