The cow forgotten, leaving the man alone
When you are editing be dispassionate- Natalie Goldman calls it “Samurai mode” in her book “Writing down the bones”
Eliminate all unnecessary words.
Your editing pen, is a sword of life. You cut that which harms the story; you cut that which obscures it; you are its liberator and protector.
But you will not see the story.
The story will be invisible as you tighten sentences and eliminate word madness; you will be aware of it, but not conscious.
You’re still working on the story, but in editing weighing one word, then one sentence at a time, eclipses other concerns; your story will well survive the pruning.
3 comments:
The key word here is 'unnecessary'. If you look at my blog there are a lot of asides which, are unnecessary to the context but very necessary to the flavour. A melody needs harmony but when you can't hear the tune for the accompaniment then you have to start thinking about pruning.
I've said this before, and I have no doubt I'll say it again, the composer Gustav Holst is on record as saying that a composer's most vital tool is an eraser. If you look at the score for The Planets the orchestra is huge but there aren't too many occasions when it all plays at once. The size was for colour so that he had a broad pallet of sounds and textures to pick from.
I think when it comes to writing, the hardest thing maybe is to make it shorter, to delete. But it is necessary. Good post, good advice, good blog
@ Jim. I think half of the skill in editing is knowing what is necessary and what isn’t. I look at a lot of Hunter S Thompson’s work and marvel at how many unnecessary paragraphs he’ll use, but as you say, they add flavor to the writing, and tit’s that flavor that I read his work for.
There are times where we cut too much, but those are much more rare than the times we should cut more. I really think in composition of any sort, be it music or literature editing is the thing that will bring a piece out as the artist intends- sounds obvious, but there are a great many people out there who would claim editing is of no benefit to their work = )
Jim is another writer who blogs about writing, and has a wealth of experience to draw on- You can find his blog, “The Truth About Lies” in the link bar to the left of this page.
@ Ray, I agree, shorter is better, but you’ve got to know when to stop pruning- as I said to Jim, above, The art of editing lies in knowing when to stop editing. Some days this point can seem as arcane as the higher precepts of Mesopotamian Voodoo.
Thanks for the praise, Ray, I’m really enjoying the way “The Anatomy” is coming together- in the next week I’ll have a little special on the art work of the graphic novel. I guess, because I don’t have a Pultizer to my name, I have to prove the principals that I speak about here, and that’s what the art work to the story does. The story it tells is nothing to do with “The Anatomy” itself- it’s just a nice little story I came up with some time ago, but it’s told in pictures- hopefully it’ll make you laugh, cry, gnash your teeth, to add something over all to the package- An entertaining story and proof that the ideas in “The Anatomy” work. Glad you’re enjoying “The Anatomy,” I’ll be interested to see what you think of future posts.
Ray runs a great blog called, “The Esoterical Journey,” you can find it in the links bar to the left of this page. He delves into a living philosophy that you will come away from thinking about. It’s great reading and is bound to, if nothing else, expand your world view.
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