Feb
Edits and Revisions
Hello Inkers!
Back in December I sent in a query and synopsis to an editor, which she requested a full. I heard back from her on Valentine’s day, and she had asked me to revise my manuscript and send it back to her if I was willing. I was really worried about what she would say, because I’ve heard so many horror stories about editors changing entire stories.
I was very pleased with the changes she asked me to write. I really felt like it made not only my story stronger, but my characters. I’ve been working steadily since last Thursday and I’m half way done. I think my characters are much happier too.
I ended up cutting 20 pages, which may not seem like a lot, but my MS was only about 120 pages to begin with. It ended up being about 3 chapters that I cut out. But I’ve already added about 30, and I still have more to go, so it will end up being longer than it was originally.Â
I remember the first time I had to cut pages, I refused for the longest time just hoping and praying my precious words would work, but…alas, DELETE had to be pressed. But you know what I do? I ALWAYS have another document called “Title of my WIP CUTS” and I put everything I cut out into that folder. I may be able to use part of it later in the WIP, or in a different one completely. But at least it is a comfort to know they are not gone forever. So my 20 pages or so from Her Captain Returns are in my “Her Captain Returns CUTS” folder.
When I’m reading, I often wonder if the bigtime writers, the New York Times Bestsellers, go through the hell it is to edit.  It seems to me that they are just writing geniuses and the words flow, and a month later they see it on the shelves selling like mad. I know that is impossible, and I’m sure they’ve gone through what I do with edits and revisions before, but does it get any easier?
Back to cutting it out and how hard it is, I found this time around that it wasn’t hard. I don’t know if it was because after reading the editors comments I realized that it didn’t belong in my story, or if it is because after writing for almost three years I am finally realizing that cutting stuff needs to happen.
What do you think? Do you cut stuff out, do you save it? What would you do if an editor requested revisions? 
I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday, I am going to be “butt in chair, fingers on keyboard” for most of the day. I’m hoping to get all of my edits done by the end of this week, so I can review it two more times the following week. I’m trying to get a 4 week turnaround back to the editor. How long would you take to review a manuscript?
Cheers!
Eliza
I’m a packrat. I save everything. Deleted scenes don’t necessarily get their own folders, though. With multiple saved drafts, I can almost always find the scene somewhere. I’ve promised myself if I ever get my books published, I’ll clean up my hard drive and trash all the stuff I won’t ever need again. (Except when you think about King’s The Stand - which was re-released years later with a lot of the deleted scenes back in - you never know what you might be able to use someday.)
February 20th, 2008 at 8:11 amI save everything. I have a junk folder and doc for cut snips. If the story is a full one, it may have its own cuts folder. Never know when when something might be useful in the future.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:34 amI have my original work, then I saved it with a different name and that is what I am hacking away at this moment. I’m going from 93,000 words to 70,000!!! And that’s still more than the editor wants. But like you, I’m finding my Slim-fast story much better. Characters, scenes, adverbs, secondary plots—clipped and cut with no regrets. I’ve still got over 2000 more to delete and every “and” counts! Of course I wish I knew the submission guidelines before I wrote the original. But it’s actually been kind of fun. I wrote this book several years ago and can see I’ve grown and changed—always a good thing!
February 20th, 2008 at 9:34 am[...] http://www.romanticinks.com/blog wrote an interesting post today on Edits and RevisionsHere’s a quick excerptEdits and Revisions Print This Post February 20th, 2008 by Eliza Knight Hello Inkers! Back in December I sent in a query and synopsis to an editor, which she requested a full. I heard back from her on Valentine’s day, and she had asked me to revise my manuscript and send it back to her if I was willing. I was really worried about what she would say, because I’ve heard so many horror stories about editors changing entire stories. I was very pleased with the changes she asked me to write. [...]
February 20th, 2008 at 9:35 amWell, I haven’t gotten to this point yet, so yay all of you who have. I do have my original hand written version of the first 14 pages of Constance, there are changes, some minor, one or two major. Ack! I can’t even think about edits yet. Soon, soon, soon!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:06 amThanks for the responses guys!
You’re exactly right about it being re-released later on w/deleted scenes, B.E., you’d hate to be in that situation and know you’ve deleted your work. I’m a packrat too, and I fear that oneday I will end up just trashing a lot of stuff, but you know, we all need to clean up our hard-drives sometime. Hopefully I’ll be careful and not delete the important or interesting stuff.
I’ve also thought about starting a blog with the characters and using my deleted scenes as conversation pieces, most of my deleted scenes are backstory, or their scenes that give away too much info in the beginning, leaving little mystery to the reader for why things are happening.
I’ve also noticed from reviewing things I’ve written in years past how much my writing has grown and changed. It is really wonderful to see such changes. I wonder what it will be like in another three years.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:12 amCongrats on the response! It sounds like the project interested the editor and fortunately you agree with the changes. I save versions and versions, but I find I’ve never gone back to pull out a deleted snippet. It always feels fresher to rewrite. But still, it’s there and memory is cheap nowadays.
Good luck on the resubmission!
February 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm