Balancing Writing and Editing

Every writer understands the importance of editing their work.  It has been edited, either by an editor, or by a group of beta readers, and now its time to sit down and wade through all the comments and markings on the page.  It’s a slow process going through it page by page making sure the story becomes more refined as you go.  Some writers are able to plow through it and get the editing done pretty quickly forgoing all other projects until their story has been edited.  Other writers aren’t able to set aside other projects and focus on editing.

The question is how do you find that balance?

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Beta Readers and Editing

This past month has been an interesting month for me from the writing standpoint.  After completing edits and revisions on my short story TEMPTING FATE with the hope of finding a place to publish it, I’ve delved into editing my first book in my Demon Hunter series.  I’m only about twenty-five percent of the way through and I found myself thinking about all the books I’ve ever read.

Editing is a vital part of making a good book stand out with the reader and make it memorable.  Sure, I’ve read books by my favorite authors and found an error or two now and again, but it seems trivial when compared to the book as a whole.  On the flip side, I also know from experience that when there are a lot of editing issues, they stand out and make it difficult to really enjoy a book.  That was what my first book was like.  Lots of inconsistencies and errors that needed fixing.  Part of that was due in part to a lack of quality feedback and my own undertaking to edit the book.

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