Thursday, November 17, 2011

Two types of editing - macro-level and micro-level

Although there are dozens upon dozens of varying techniques of editing your stories, for the most part they can be broken down into two camps: macro-level and micro-level editing.

I'll break these down further in the subsequent blogs, but here's a teaser of them right now.

Macro-level is the overall story.  This could be the tense of the story (past or present), or the structure, the plot, characterization, descriptions, or even what I call the "realistic-ness" of the story.

Micro-level is the bits and pieces of the story.  This is each chapter, paragraph, or sentence.  This would also deal with the plot, characterization, and descriptions, but on a more individual basis.

When I'm editing, it feels like my mind is scrambling on various planes, on both the macro- and micro-level.  This is why it typically takes a writer a long time to get their story publish-ready, because there are so many aspects of writing you need to be aware of.

But rest assured, with practice, one can learn these and become a better writer.  You'll still need the assistance of a great editor.  Nothing could ever replace that.  Yet the more work you can do ahead of time, the better.

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