Editing Step 1: Recon

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”

– Philip K. Dick

I wonder if there are writers out in the world who prefer editing to writing.  If so, maybe they can scoop up some of their twisted sense of prioritization and ship it my way, because editing is not my forte.  After my productive procrastination session designing a far too intricate editing checklist, I finally got started on the process itself.  Step one in my editing process: recon. That’s when I realized just how painful this process will be.

You see, I wrote this entire book in the gardener fashion (or as it’s more commonly referred to, as a pantser).  I had some inklings of where I wanted things to go, but that revolved mostly around introducing characters I thought might be fun to write.  Once it all congealed on the page, though, it quickly became clear that while things progress from Point A to a conclusion, that may not be Point Z.  Or even a point in the same alphabet.

This is why recon is so important to the editing process. Delving straight into line-by-line editing would result in me fixing typos and ignoring the huge structural issues, so it’s best to identify all the ugliness first.  I wrote out summaries of each chapter and slapped them into a timeline.  General bafflement came next, followed by figurative head bashing against the desk as I saw how many obvious inconsistencies I need to address.  That’s the issue with writing a book in manic bursts over several years—you tend to lose one or two threads along the way.

While it was ego-deflating to see those problems, doing this recon now will help tremendously throughout the editing process.  I’d prefer to know the ugly up front so I can incorporate fixes into the entire process instead of finding out about it at the last minute and having to start over if the issue is fundamental enough.  By understanding what I have to work with now, I can move into the next step (analyzing structure) with more confidence. 

I will say this though—I have an intense desire to make sure my next book is thoroughly outlined to save myself this hassle in the future.