Creative Writing and Revising: Rewriting, Editing, and Proofreading
When creative writing is done, revision begins!
Writing is revising.
I’ve heard many authors make this statement in various ways: writing is rewriting, writing is polishing, writing is proofreading and editing.
The gist is that the bulk of work happens after the first draft. That is, once you’ve gotten your ideas down, the real craft of writing is making your work clear and presentable.
One could argue that this means when the creative writing is done, the more mechanical process of polishing begins.
Discovery writing is a popular technique among writers. You turn off your inner editor and let the words flow, typos and all. You focus is on getting your ideas out of your head and onto the page.
This allows you to stream your thoughts more freely. Instead of worrying about word choice, paragraph structure, and grammar, you just concentrate on what you want to say. Not all writers use this technique, but many writers find that any other technique actually spoils the fun of writing. For example, if you know how your story is going to end, why bother writing it at all? Even with nonfiction writing, you may not fully understand your own feelings on any given topic until you’ve written your way through it.
Once you get all those creative writing ideas out of your head, revision becomes critical. You may find that you spend more time revising than you did drafting. Even writers who approach their first drafts with their inner editors turned on find that revision is essential.
Revisions: Rewriting, Proofreading, and Editing
Revision is all about change. More specifically, it’s about making changes that improve our work. Rewriting, proofreading, and editing are all revision methods. Each has a specific function.
Rewriting is the process of making deep, contextual changes to a piece of written work. When you’re rewriting a novel, you might turn a leading character into a sidekick. You might move the setting from one city to another. You may go through and change the tone of the narrative; in fact, you might even switch the point of view from first person to third person. Rewriting is done by the author, although in some cases, editors will do some rewriting.
Editing may deal loosely with context but its true focus is on readability. Are the best word choices made? Do the sentences make sense? Are the paragraphs well organized? Does the work read smoothly and effortlessly? The primary purpose of editing is the make the work ready for a readership.
With many publishing models, there is a step after editing and before proofreading in which the text is reviewed and adjusted for formatting. This is called copy editing.
Proofreading is limited to checking for correctness. Proofreading focuses on grammar, spelling, and punctuation (including typos and syntax).
Overlaps in the Revision Process
There are a lot of gray areas between these various steps in the revision process. An editor might do some light rewriting and a copy editor might fix some grammatical mistakes. If you have an agent, he or she may get in on the fun and recommend some revisions before sending your book out to publishing houses. As you’re rewriting, you will likely fix typos and make adjustments to the syntax. In other words, agents edit, editors proofread, and you, as the author, will do all of these things.
It takes a village, right?
If you’ve written a book or are thinking about writing a book, it’s smart to think about how you’re going to handle your own revision process. You might think you can write a novel over the coarse of eight or nine months, but then how long is it going to take you to do your revisions? Will you hire an editor or a proofreader to help you clean up the text before you shop it around?
Where Do You Stand?
Self-published writers are under fire for poor editing. It’s not unusual to read reviews of self-published works that say the story’s good but there were typos on every page. Meanwhile, traditional publishers are reportedly pulling back on editing and proofreading. They are struggling with the poor economy and massive changes within their industry; their staffs are overworked and as a result, books aren’t edited as thoroughly as they used to be (as a reader, I can report that I see far more typos in newly published works than with books published ten or twenty years ago).
When all is said and done and a book becomes available for sale, it’s the writer’s name that appears on the cover. It is the writer who will bear the criticism, whether it addresses the quality of the content or the professionalism of the copy. As a writer, part of your job is to think about how revisions mold your creative writing into a professionally polished, published piece of work that is ready for readers.
What’s your revision process? How do you feel about typos and other mistakes in published books that you’ve read? How much time do you spend proofreading and editing your own work? Do you separate creative writing from the more mechanical processes of editing and proofreading? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Melissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter. She writes fiction and poetry and is the founder and editor of Writing Forward, a blog packed with creative writing tips and ideas.
Sure, I separate the two modes. I think it only makes sense. Like emphasizing the right brain mode and then the left brain mode.
On the other hand, I think there is plenty of blame to go around for poorly written, recently-published books.
In my experience, to pick a case in point on the nonfiction side of things, a lot of college text books have been so ineptly written as to be almost incomprehensible, but that has been gong on for decades.
But on the fiction side of recently-published works, I’ve noticed way too many amateurish novels that should have never seen print. Not just self-published works but also traditionally produced ones. I don’t know if it is “profit-despair” on the part of the publishing industry, but I am tempted to think so. But the fault lies with poor or slipping publishing standards, as well as with lazy authors, who have not done the work to learn the craft or the revision and rewriting necessary to make their novels good. I’m not just talking typos here–yes, they abound–but a lack of competent craft.
I’m a Vine reviewer at Amazon.com, have been for a number of years, and believe me I have read some really lousy fiction works, way too many. Both novelists and publishers should know better.
By the way, I enjoy your posts.
Thanks, Bill. I have a few theories about why the quality of published works has suffered, and I do think it’s related to profit and the corporate system. However, it’s affecting most industries, not just publishing. There are still plenty of great books to read, so I try to focus on those and do my best to promote them and advocate for good writing.
Writers should never rely on themselves to proof their own work. I’m a pro editor and good at subbing, and I pick up most of my mistakes, but even so I have at least one other pair of eyes at the end of the process – and usually before that, too.
It is definitely best to have a second pair of eyes go over everything, although it’s not always possible, especially for bloggers.
I have a few writer friends that like to self-publish their work and the typos abound. I can’t fathom how they don’t cringe from reading their own work, because I know I do!
I don’t know if it’s simply laziness or that they don’t care. The younger generation of writers that are not seeking to be traditionally published seem to have a different mind set when it comes to editing and proofreading. They feel the content is what matters and just getting their work out their as quick as possible! “I wrote a book! Quick! Read it even though it may suck!”
I guess I’m old school. I read and reread and have someone else read it a couple of times because there is nothing worse, in my opinion, than looking like the idiot who didn’t take the time to proofread and edit work before sending it out.
Mistakes are human, and they will happen no matter how many times you read something. With my own work, I tend not to see them because the work is very familiar to me…hence the second pair of eyes. But I see typos more and more now than I used to, that is for sure!
Thanks for the great articles, they help keep me motivated and focused!
I’m with you, DL. I love that self-publishing has become so easy and made it possible for just about anyone to get their book out there. However, the down side is that it also brings a lot of poor quality work into the market. I’m curious to see how it all pans out and what literature and publishing will look like in 20-30 years. My guess is that the writers and the readerships will simply split. One one side, you’ll have people writing and reading well crafted work, and on the other side, you’ll have writers producing shoddy work and readers who buy it (unwittingly, in some cases).
I totally agree with you, Writing Forward. I’m currently polishing my first novel’s draft, and it’s a much better book now than how it started out. Revisiting, editing, and proofreading are essential. Since this is my first manuscript, I’m going polish it myself as much as possible, then I want to send it to a professional editor. I want to do this because sometimes we can be too close to our projects. I’ve worked on this novel since 1995 (no kidding!), and have taken it through four major rewrites. With all the changes going on in the publishing industry I keep reading about, I just want to put my best work forward before sending it out to agents and publishers.
You have a solid plan! I love it. I wish you the best of success with your novel.
Good article as most of yours are that I have been reading since becoming a subscriber .
I have been an avid and eclectic reader for the past 40 years and can honestly say that
I extremely disappointed with the typos in so many books, I would say this has been mostly
In the past 10 or so years. I read 2-4 novels a week and that’s just my before bedtime reading.
In years past it would have been a novel every other day. Of course some day I would love to
write a book, when the time is right I will. When I’ve read 2,000 more, I’m learning everyday, my
brain is a sponge and I am hoping it will not dry up before I’m ready to write.
You have to do whatever feels right, but why put off writing? If you have 40 years of avid reading under your belt, I say you’ve probably soaked up enough to start dabbling in writing. You can always start by getting a notebook and using it do some writing prompts and exercises. See what unfolds!
With the rise in popularity of KIndle it seems that the badly written book is becoming the standard and a well written book the exception. I’m am not a writer but I do appreciate the work that goes into the craft of writing. My business is setting up blogs and websites, and I am amazed at all the poorly written content people want the world to see.
The problem is that most people can’t tell the difference between well written and poorly written content. It’s a shame.