The love of Editing

Once upon a time I hated editing my own work, had I the money I would have payed for someone to do it for me. Luckily I'm a poor writer without the income to pay anyone to edit my work, the most I can afford is a copy-editor. Luckily I said, you read right, had I the money I would never have learned to love doing it myself.

Sure they say one can't possible edit ones own work to perfection, but so can't someone else. Nothing in life is perfect, not even the sun. Though someone else will be able to see what you will never able to and catch the mistakes you have missed. Best is to have an editor edit your own work after you have self-edited extensively, this will iron out most mistakes. For the writer without ample budget self-editing and a copy-editor will have to do.

How did I come to love it? Simply by doing it. The more you practice by doing, the better you get at it, the better you get at it, the higher the chance will be you'll like doing it. Loving something will help in the rate you improve, because I hated self-editing it went slowly for me. My dislike was a ball of iron chained to my leg, it took me a mind adjustment to break the chain.

We people like to put borders for ourselves which we are reluctant to pass. Thinking we are not good in something, or that something is difficult, or that you can't possible do it by yourself, we limit ourselves in what we can do. By changing your thoughts into what you want to do and by not putting a ceiling for yourself, you will be able to go further than you ever thought would be possible.

I stopped thinking negatively about editing and focused instead on the good, and what I wanted to accomplish. By not thinking negatively about editing, I felt with each passing day the abhorrence of editing fading. I'm pushing more work now and have good hopes I'll finish my current WIP before years end.

The ART of DRAMATIC WRITING

You've seen it right, the title is in CAPITAL LETTERS, this book deserves the added exclamation. If you want to know more about how to improve your writing craft, be it playwright, writing a short story, a novelette, a novel, a screenplay, even your grocery-list, buy this book.

Lajos Egri explains the need of having a premise, characters, and conflict to shape the story. He shows that without this the story will not reach its full potential. He proves his points with explanations, and examples of existing plays (from the era he wrote the book), and a session of question that he answers in great detail.

This book helped me understand why some of what I wrote previously worked and some not so much. It gave me understanding where previously I was guessing and going by feeling. It's not that you can't write a great book based on going just with pure imagination, but it's rare. Knowing why things work gives you that much more confidence in your writing, and the right tools to knowingly write (or attempt to) a great book.

I'm glad I read this book. It's a shame I forgot who recommended The Art of Dramatic Writing to me, I would kiss him or her a thousands times. It's a great book and an asset to every writers bookcase.