Editing How the Heck Do You Find Motivation to Go Back and Edit Your Chapters?!

Spilled_Soup

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My punctuation and grammar are terrible. So I just focus on prose, and describing the scene in a visual manner because that's what I like.

A suggestion I guess, is that you should focus on how your ideas read to others. If it seems confusing, edit it. But if you're talking about grammar stuff etc, run it through a grammar check
 

Saileri

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Easy. Editing is fun. What do you mean you don't edit your chapters all the time? Once after writing, once before posting, ten times in between these points just because you felt like it. Oh, and whenever someone points something out, it's obvious you would reread the whole thing again.
 

Farok

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For me, it's reversed: all I do is editing my chapters again and again. There's always this or that to correct and make it better. But in the end, it's never perfect. So I edit again.

One time: I rewrote a chapter 3 times, and I mean rewrote, not just some changes in paragraphs or anything. No, complete rewrites. Then, 3 hours before I had to post it, I asked myself: "But, if I look at it unbiased, is it good?"

Major spoiler: It was.
 
D

Deleted member 52929

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I literally do not know peace when I realize there are any errors in my earlier chapters, so I always feel the need to edit them over and over from time to time. It's probably super counter-productive but I literally cant help it.
 

Valmond

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Please tell...
I will be up front. Those willing to take the craft more serious are willing to do what is necessary. Even if it takes a thousand hours if not more, that drive to always improve will keep the person going. To acknowledge your work needs improvement is the first step. Afterwards, visualizing the end goal will help the process. Ultimately however, if one wishes to do better, they have to put in the time. There are tools out there to make the process easier. Though, when push comes to shove, gotta open that work, start from line one, and improve it each step of the way.

The end result will be better than the starting point, and that is what is aimed for. Every time one does better, it lays the foundation for that piece to be better the next time the session begins.

In the past month, I have edited roughly 150k words. This is rather low to be honest.
 

JayDirex

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I will be up front. Those willing to take the craft more serious are willing to do what is necessary. Even if it takes a thousand hours if not more, that drive to always improve will keep the person going. To acknowledge your work needs improvement is the first step. Afterwards, visualizing the end goal will help the process. Ultimately however, if one wishes to do better, they have to put in the time. There are tools out there to make the process easier. Though, when push comes to shove, gotta open that work, start from line one, and improve it each step of the way.

The end result will be better than the starting point, and that is what is aimed for. Every time one does better, it lays the foundation for that piece to be better the next time the session begins.

In the past month, I have edited roughly 150k words. This is rather low to be honest.
Here's the deal, many authors up here (like you and I) share this ideal. However, it's so easy to dismiss this when So, many. readers. just don't GAF if the author posts a story on construction paper, written with a crayon in shit grammar and run on sentences. As long as there's a demon-loli trapped in a game, they don't care.

So those who preach the craft of the written word, are up against those who just type and post and have HUGE followings. It is sickening. but I totally understand that is the way of things now. If readers reward you for UNPOLISHED writing, where is the incentive to do better?

Hmm?

you are up against savage indifference. and NON-PC- answer- People too fkn stupid to notice they are reading TRASH, so long as it has a fkn system and a clown ass MC that they can relate to.
 

Valmond

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Here's the deal, many authors up here (like you and I) share this ideal. However, it's so easy to dismiss this when So, many. readers. just don't GAF if the author posts a story on construction paper, written with a crayon in shit grammar and run on sentences. As long as there's a demon-loli trapped in a game, they don't care.

So those who preach the craft of the written word, are up against those who just type and post and have HUGE followings. It is sickening. but I totally understand that is the way of things now. If readers reward you for UNPOLISHED writing, where is the incentive to do better?

Hmm?

you are up against savage indifference. and NON-PC- answer- People too fkn stupid to notice they are reading TRASH, so long as it has a fkn system and a clown ass MC that they can relate to.
I think it is this site. As well as the type of story, depending on where you are. The base can be quite critical. Hell, I once had someone try to get on me for making a very slight mistake. All in all though, there is no doubt a division. If one is willing to take the craft seriously, there is no easy route. One casts out all other distractions, and focuses on the work at hand. I once ignored all of my readers for a few months. In that time, I worked to polish my skills.

It is a personal commitment. Even if there is no reward, those willing to do their best will work through the quietness. Those who have the following will also ignore their voices and diligently work without distractions. In the end, there are going to be a lot that dislikes one’s work, and a lot that likes it.

If there is no drive to do better, then that is on them. The process remains the same for virtually anything out there, set a goal, complete it, set a higher goal, and repeat. If the writer is serious, they will challenge themselves to improve. If not, then they won’t.
 
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D

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Wail at the internet through the monitor screen. Perhaps the tech wizard fairy will hear your plea and send a gremlin to help "reword" a few things.

Honestly though, congrats you made it that far that you can edit stuff.

Dealing with being unotivated a lot, but you can get motivated reading or seeing how many views/likes/comments are on that story...idk but that sorta makes one feel like their story is being noticed so maybe its not that bad and it makes one feel like one should be a bit more responsible effort? seeing how many readers are waitibg for a story to be finished or smoothed out more. Probably just what i feel thu

Sometimes its the mood that sets it too so can just go and fix it. Like an urge sometimes. Or be like what @Napelynn says and just go do it.

You can stare at it for so long that you either 1) decide you just can't stand it anymore and start trimming and cutting and editing it away or 2) you give up.

I would edit a story and make sure it good enough first or several drafts before publishing them, especially doing it at each ch end so dont have a whole bunch of chapters piling up to go back and edit. It can help diminsh that pile and since while you're already still working on that chapter, might as well make it better a but more throughly thu doesn’t have be perfect since first we're human after all.
 

Reisinling

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to OP: I agree it sucks. Ask yourself why you want to rewrite it in the first place, and then use it as motivation. For me Its just dissatisfaction with how many people dropped my novel after 20 chapters, so I wanted to make it better. Also, analyzing and fixing your mistakes seems to be the best way to really improve.

It is a personal commitment. Even if there is no reward, those willing to do their best will work through the quietness. Those who have the following will also ignore their voices and diligently work without distractions. In the end, there are going to be a lot that dislikes one’s work, and a lot that likes it.

If there is no drive to do better, then that is on them. The process remains the same for virtually anything out there, set a goal, complete it, set a higher goal, and repeat. If the writer is serious, they will challenge themselves to improve. If not, then they won’t.

Well said. One of the main goals of rewrite, for me, is to improve, and rewriting seems to be a good way of becoming more self aware of your errors, while actively trying to fix them.
Here's the deal, many authors up here (like you and I) share this ideal. However, it's so easy to dismiss this when So, many. readers. just don't GAF if the author posts a story on construction paper, written with a crayon in shit grammar and run on sentences. As long as there's a demon-loli trapped in a game, they don't care.

So those who preach the craft of the written word, are up against those who just type and post and have HUGE followings. It is sickening. but I totally understand that is the way of things now. If readers reward you for UNPOLISHED writing, where is the incentive to do better?

Hmm?

you are up against savage indifference. and NON-PC- answer- People too fkn stupid to notice they are reading TRASH, so long as it has a fkn system and a clown ass MC that they can relate to.
I don't know man. I read a lot of great literature, with high quality prose, and themes and symbolism... and at some point I just got bored. For now I enjoy rawness (and stupidity) more. I will most likely get bored of this as well, but meh. Also, you seem to be angry at genre fiction in general, which had been dominating the industry since... early XX century? Or XIX? I remember reading people being angry, while using the same arguments, when talking about Jane Austin.

Also, believe me, I know I'm reading trash. As I suspect many people here do. But I'm also complacent enough to realise, I don't search for intellectual stimulation 24/7, sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy a bit of brainless fun.
 

Valmond

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to OP: I agree it sucks. Ask yourself why you want to rewrite it in the first place, and then use it as motivation. For me Its just dissatisfaction with how many people dropped my novel after 20 chapters, so I wanted to make it better. Also, analyzing and fixing your mistakes seems to be the best way to really improve.



Well said. One of the main goals of rewrite, for me, is to improve, and rewriting seems to be a good way of becoming more self aware of your errors, while actively trying to fix them.

I don't know man. I read a lot of great literature, with high quality prose, and themes and symbolism... and at some point I just got bored. For now I enjoy rawness (and stupidity) more. I will most likely get bored of this as well, but meh. Also, you seem to be angry at genre fiction in general, which had been dominating the industry since... early XX century? Or XIX? I remember reading people being angry, while using the same arguments, when talking about Jane Austin.

Also, believe me, I know I'm reading trash. As I suspect many people here do. But I'm also complacent enough to realise, I don't search for intellectual stimulation 24/7, sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy a bit of brainless fun.
Yeah, shoulda seen when I first rewrote my work. I was horrified by the errors, the inconsistencies, the pacing, etc. Virtually everything, though, I knew I wouldn’t get better if I turn away. So, I went to line one, chapter 1, and began rewriting. I must have rewritten that series about five or six times. Funny enough, that diligence eventually made me want to continue writing even more. As a result, recently written four books in three months. My skills improved a lot due to the time I took to polish up my first.

Thing is, even now, I cannot find a better idea than the first one. So it has a special place for constant improvement. I took ideas I never had the time for, and gave it a story of its own. In the least, it meets the line of my original work, and a lot easier to polish up and write.

There is a lot one learns when they acknowledge that there is room for improvement, and apply themselves to make it possible.
 

JayDirex

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to OP: I agree it sucks. Ask yourself why you want to rewrite it in the first place, and then use it as motivation. For me Its just dissatisfaction with how many people dropped my novel after 20 chapters, so I wanted to make it better. Also, analyzing and fixing your mistakes seems to be the best way to really improve.



Well said. One of the main goals of rewrite, for me, is to improve, and rewriting seems to be a good way of becoming more self aware of your errors, while actively trying to fix them.

I don't know man. I read a lot of great literature, with high quality prose, and themes and symbolism... and at some point I just got bored. For now I enjoy rawness (and stupidity) more. I will most likely get bored of this as well, but meh. Also, you seem to be angry at genre fiction in general, which had been dominating the industry since... early XX century? Or XIX? I remember reading people being angry, while using the same arguments, when talking about Jane Austin.

Also, believe me, I know I'm reading trash. As I suspect many people here do. But I'm also complacent enough to realise, I don't search for intellectual stimulation 24/7, sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy a bit of brainless fun.
we all do. But it's disheartening to know just how much the trashy stuff out ratios the rest. But at this point IDGAF anymore. I just want to write what sells. the rest of you can do you~
 
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