Thursday, May 2, 2019

Big picture vs. Small picture Editing

OK, let me first say, I am not a big fan of the title of this blog, but it was the best I could do when I got ready to post this. I think you will understand what I am talking about once we get into this.

I do think authors, far too many times, are missing the point when they get into editing and revising their manuscripts. The end result is often a story that has moments of brilliance but simply does not hold together as a full story. This is a result of how the author is approach the editing and what he or she is looking for. Both levels of editing are 100% important and, in no way am I suggesting one is better than the other.

Most authors tend to edit with a small picture approach. They focus in on making single scenes great. They focus in on getting those first three chapters golden. They focus in on making those individual lines perfect. This is certainly important. You need to make sure that at a sentence/paragraph/scene level, things are perfect! Here is the issue though. The authors are not thinking about what is happening in the other parts of the story, either before or after. They are not thinking about how those individual changes affect the other things going on.

Let me use my mother-in-law as an example. Sandy was a great person! She had a lot of great intentions. However, I would always cringe when she got ready to do re-decorating in her house, or when she wanted to re-arrange furniture. She would focus on one room and go to work making changes. We would spend all day moving furniture or painting or something else to get that room perfect. But here is where the problems would arise. She would then look at the neighboring room and realize that room now looked out of place. So the next weekend, we would go to work on that room. I am sure you can see where this is going. When we fixed room number 2, room number 1 now looked wrong.

She only looked at these remodels in a small focus perspective. She did not look to see how everything goes together.

As you edit, make sure to constantly examine how things fit together on a larger scale. While these changes may sound great, will these changes cause a trickle down effect on other things happening in the story? Will this impact the characters or the conflict of the story?

When I read submissions that I think might have potential, but will require edits, I always look to see if these edits are "easy" fixes or if the changes will require full overhauls. We really don't want to re-write the entire book. We are not like Chip and Joanna on Fixer Upper and wanting to fully gut the story and re-do it. We are looking for changes that are effective and efficient.


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