Writer's Wednesday: Editing, yet again.

 

What I have today might be a question. Maybe it's just an observation. Maybe it's a deep-seated flaw in how I work.

Here's the thing: everything I read, and indeed my own logic, tells me to do big-picture edits without messing with the prose. But here's my reality: I can't. If I see how to improve a sentence or spot confusion about who's speaking, I have to (at the very least) mark it for fixing. If I have a sudden realization of how to reword something, I have to do it now, because that insight may never come my way again (even if I leave a bookmark).

Is this a problem? The reality is that most of my original prose stays in the finished book, albeit rather polished up. But it's there. So very little of that work is wasted. 

But wait--isn't it distracting me from the more important (at the moment) task of fixing the story arc?

Well, probably? That actually isn't a helpful observation, since I don't seem able to restrain myself. And maybe there's an up side to this: I know how to fix sentences. Sometimes fixing a whole story arc is too overwhelming. So maybe fixing a sentence is a way to keep myself happy and confident. That's got to be worth something. 

Here's another thing: maybe those big-picture shifts I always see as essential when I go through the MS in an early stage of editing aren't always *that* big. Sometimes it's actually small things that need to be shifted. That's a comforting thought, since it's always easier to fix small things. 

What are your best editing tactics? How do you keep yourself from being overwhelmed by the size of the problem? And where do you dream about traveling to as winter drags on? 

 

Fantasizing about being back in some warm, sunny spot with my pile of edits.

 

☕Buy me a coffee--or get my ebooks

 

 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026 

As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.


Don't miss a post--Follow me!