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If you have completed your manuscript, how many edits have you done?

I finished writing my novel months ago. I am in the process of editing my manuscript again. I must be into double figures.

Are you as obsessed as I am with your editing? I believe I am putting as much effort into editing as I did writing my novel. I find editing enjoyable, but hard work.

Asked by: Adrian Sroka

  1. Chhavi Kapur on August 12, 2012

    I have edited my novel a dozen times. Every time I read it, I edit because no matter how hard you try, you can't get a perfect novel. I enjoy doing it but I've reached the point where I can't read it anymore, so I'm giving it one last edit.

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  2. Jonathan Hopkins on August 12, 2012

    I'd edit forever. If I pick up the first book I edit it again, but at some point you have to stop as Chhavi says.

    I think the danger of over-editing is losing the spark that made you write in the first place; taking the 'you' out of the book. But then I'm editing only my second at the moment so I'm not exactly an expert.

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  3. Victoria Whithear on August 12, 2012

    There are parts of my series that have been rewritten as much as seven times and then endlessly edited after that. I could keep tinkering with it forever but I'm going to call a halt at the end of this summer... I think.

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  4. S G Romee on August 13, 2012

    I am going over my manuscript with a fine tooth comb; and it is nearly three hundred pages. The right coma in the right place and the right semi-colon can alter my manuscript significantly. And they may not come to my notice for many reads. So my advice is edit the manuscript till you notice an error-free piece of work.

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  5. Gilly Ansell on August 13, 2012

    I have 2 friends who critique my work once I've finished writing it. I then re look at it and edit again but I get to a stage where I can no longer read it - I have to put it down and do something else, as I confuse myself with what I've just read and what I have written/read on previous occasions (that may not make sense but I know what I mean ;-) ) Editing it dozens of times is not something I feel I could do unless I put it down for a year each time and forgot what I'd initially written.

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