How Much is Too Much?

[rolanni]

Today's question for the group mind: How much editing is Enough; how much is Too Much; and d'ye ever crave more?

kinzel and I are ...fortunate, I suppose the word is... in generally being edited lightly. This comes with its own set of terrors, of course, and it's not at all unknown for us to impose upon friends to beta-read our latest novel and ask them to Do Their Worst.

However, out there in ListWorld, I've been reading tales from writers -- many of them multi-published authors who clearly know what they're doing -- whose editors edit their proposals, to the extent of not letting them continue on what I consider to be the Real Work -- that would be, writing the book -- until the proposal is up to the editor's standard. This seems beyond foolish to me, but what do I know? My feelings about proposals are ambiguous at best.

Comments

[od-mind.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I Dare is written and stands, or falls, on its merits, so comments specific to that work are not likely to be as helpful.

I'm not sure I understand that. I would have thought that specific quibbles and complaints (i.e. "when you did this, I disliked it for that reason") would be more useful, even in hindsight, than vague generalities.

Remember, the context here is "we love almost everything about these works, and the things we don't like seem to us like they were avoidable within the story being told".

When you say the work "stands or falls on its merits", to my ears it sounds like you think of it as an integral whole that could not have been otherwise without being a wholly different book. I don't see that. I think it could have been the same story -- the same characters, the same plot, the same major events, the same motivations, almost exactly the same dialog -- and yet (this is hubris, I know) improved by a little bit of additional work on those seemingly-avoidable look-to-us-like-flaws.

(On the other hand, if all you mean is "it's finished and done with", that's fine and understood -- but that doesn't mean there are no lessons to be learned from our reactions to its various aspects.)

I'll try to assemble a coherent presentation with concrete examples, and send it along to rolanni@korval.com, or such other address as you prefer.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand that. I would have thought that specific quibbles and complaints

Hm. The trouble with specifics is that -- they're specific. And to me, each story is individual, in structure and in process. I realize that it may not seem so to you, but there you have it. That's why I ask for recurring quibbles, because those are more likely to be an error of craft -- which I can do something about -- rather than an infelicity of one specific work.

When you say the work "stands or falls on its merits", to my ears it sounds like you think of it as an integral whole that could not have been otherwise without being a wholly different book.

No, all I mean to say is that I can't fix that particular work now. It's been accepted, it's been published -- it Is, warts and all. The only thing I can do is try to improve my own skill for future work.

I'll try to assemble a coherent presentation with concrete examples, and send it along to rolanni@korval.com,

Thank you.

[od-mind.livejournal.com]

Hm. The trouble with specifics is that -- they're specific. And to me, each story is individual, in structure and in process.

Yes, but... the problem is not with the story, as I understand the word, or the structure of the story. It's with certain choices made in the telling of the story. Specifically, choices about how certain necessary actions or scenes are brought to pass.

I started to include a long example of what I mean, but I'll save it for the email. It may take me a few days to put everything together.

No, all I mean to say is that I can't fix that particular work now. It's been accepted, it's been published -- it Is, warts and all. The only thing I can do is try to improve my own skill for future work.

Exactly. If the problem is that you see the warts but don't know how to avoid them, I can't help. If the problem is that you don't agree that [points at a particular plot device] is a wart, then I can't help. If the problem is that you didn't notice a certain wart, and no editor brought it to your attention, then maybe I can.