The Pain of Editing

What do you find the least enjoyable part of writing?

For me, it has to be editing. Paying such close attention to detail, I find sheer hard work and exhausting. But it has to be done.

Neal Asher said, ‘𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 ‘𝘸𝘢𝘴’𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 ‘𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘐 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯.’

That is so true.

I have just completed editing 20 short stories, some of which haven’t seen the light of day for years. I’ve ruthlessly removed all unnecessary words, including dozens of ‘thats’, and cut a lot of adjectives that were doing little other than boosting the word count.

I’ve come to the conclusion that less is definitely more.

So despite the hard slog and eye strain, it is definitely worth the effort. Though I’m not sure I would go quite as far as Don Roff who said, ‘𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺…𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦!’

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