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Fiction Debut Author Roundtable
2.
AOTW: Describe your editing process. Do you write and then go back to edit later, or do you revise a page until it is right, then proceed to the next page, and so on?
Anahita Firouz: I revise as I go along, usually every few pages at a time. When I begin my work every morning, I revise whatever I've written the day before. Only then do I start writing new pages. I can't proceed without doing this. I find editing to be a terrific discipline --- crucial, inspiring and liberating. Every writer needs to be a ruthless editor.
Steve Almond: I try to do as little polishing as I can along the way. The key is to get the basic story down, then to allow the editor part of my brain to go over the sentences and scenes, to excise the ornamentation. The key for me, always, is to strip away anything that isn't illuminating the characters.
Gary Shteyngart: I revise every single paragraph until it feels right.
Michael Redhill: I do edit while I write, tending to go over lines while moving forward (or sideways) in a manuscript. By the time a draft of something is finished, the first half of it is always more polished than the second half. I also do wholesale structural edits, when I feel the manuscript warrants it, and this can involve larger cuts, or sections being moved around.
Karen V. Siplin: I try to write at least 100-200 pages before I begin to revise. I've fallen into the trap of revising a chapter immediately after I've finished writing it, and then it's days before I can move forward. In my opinion, it's extremely important to keep moving forward rather than find yourself stuck on a chapter or a page.
Arthur Phillips: It depends on the draft. In first drafts, I start the day by editing what I wrote the day before. In later drafts, I tend to edit a given sentence, paragraph, page as much as I can before proceeding, but I know I'll see it again (and edit it again) in the next draft anyhow, so I don't mind moving on knowing I'm leaving big steaming faults behind me.
Ad Hudler: I'm a very anal writer. I cannot let go of a page unless I think, at that moment, that it is finished and final.
David Rosenfelt: I basically write about 30 pages, then go back and edit them. If I'm not making good progress, I re-edit all the previous pages. It lets me feel like I'm getting something accomplished.
Jill A. Davis: I write, and then pretty much rewrite constantly as I'm adding new elements. At some point I have to stop myself from doing this because I think you run the danger of overwriting the top of pieces leaving an uneven feel to things. At the same time, when I'm constantly rewriting, it makes me feel as though it's easier to keep a handle on the details and maintain a consistent tone.
Ali Smith: I edit all the time. I start with a line, and edit it, and add a line, and edit both lines, and it grows to a paragraph, and I edit that, until the sections are big enough to leave and I go on to the next, and then when in the end I have a full draft I begin at the beginning and edit it all again. Writing, I think, is a balance of instinct and edit, both equally important. The life is in the instinct; the art is in the edit.
Masha Hamilton: I revise all the time: as I'm going along sentence-by-sentence, as I've written ahead, even after I've sent it to the agent. There are so many strands to weave: characters, emotional impact, the poetry of the words themselves. The challenge is to plant the seeds to convey the power of the image in my head, and to pluck out each feeble, inexact image like a weed. I don't know that it's ever fully "right."
Terrence Cheng: I write a chunk, anywhere from one to five pages, then rest. When I am ready to write more, I reread the previous chunk, edit, change, then write more new stuff. I always reread and make changes to the previous chunk. Sometimes it's just a comma, other times it's an addition or subtraction of dialogue, description, narrative, who knows. It's a constantly morphing process. When I'm finished with a chapter, I go back and reread that chapter as a big chunk and tweak, then go on to the next chapter, chunk by chunk.
Jill Bialosky: I write in drafts and go back and edit later. I have to get the story out, the scene, the feeling and atmosphere. Then I go back and fuss with the sentences. Move things around. This book took a lot out of me. I was teaching myself how to write a novel. You have to keep up in the air so many things. Plot, point of view, sequence, when to give out information, when to hold back, pacing. I would write a draft, and then sit on it for a while, come back and try to figure out the problems. I'm amazed I actually finished the book. I wrote so many drafts that I had a running joke with one of my friends, that in my next novel there would be a character who is constantly rewriting her book!
Jay Nussbaum: I need a running start each morning, so I always go back several pages and revise. Partially it's because, with a full-time job, wife and children, I don't exactly remember what it was I'd been saying when I had to put the book away the day before. But it's also because I see no point in continuing to build onto a shaky foundation. An old sensei of mine used to say: "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect." I know it's a bit of a strained analogy, but his point is, if you practice kicking by throwing a million kicks, each one technically flawed, you only reinforce bad kicking. I prefer to stop, fix the kick, then continue.
Stella Pope Duarte: I allow the story to be born first on the page. It is important to allow the story the freedom to tell itself. This is powerful stuff. To look back and edit constantly during the "birthing process" will get you nowhere.
David Benioff: I usually begin my writing day by reviewing yesterday's pages. That way I get back in the world and hear my characters bickering before writing a new scene. Staring at a blank page is no fun at all, so kicking off with a little editing is like testing the waters with your big toe before taking the plunge. Man, that's a lame simile.
Kate Manning: I edit and edit and can't stop editing. What's hard about this is that now I can't pick up a published copy of Whitegirl without seeing a sentence I wish I'd fixed. Mostly I write in a long burst of pages, and then revise and monkey around with it constantly thereafter.
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