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Editing on the Fly
Mon, 10/13/2008 - 15:52 — Jonathan_Avery
Parakletos' blog about "Bushy-haired" kick started my mind and I thought about it. Although I dislike the adjective character descriptors, it is not a turn off for me for a story, and as I replied to Kezzabear, I realized why. I edit a story as I read it.
Maybe this is because I edit my stories as I re-read them or because I do beta work for a lot of writers, but I fix pronouns, tense issues, and even poor phrasing as I read.
It is not like I do this subconsciously. I am aware I am doing it, but at the same time it is like typing. I don't think about the keys and what I am typing but my eyes are just as often looking at the keyboard as at the screen, even though I don't need to see the keyboard to type. It is more habit from when I had to look at the keys.
However, now, when I look at the keys, I become aware that I am typing and that causes me to make mistakes. Just as when I am reading a story, and I need to edit it, it throws me out of the story and breaks the rhythm. It is probably one of the reasons I am so critical about correct writing. I hate being knocked out of a story.
Does anyone else do this? Or am I just crazy?
-Jonathan
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Comments
While I'm not a beta for
While I'm not a beta for anyone I also do that. Especially when something just flat doesn't make sense (incorrect name or gender usage is a big annoyance for me). I even once had a story saved over in word that I was reading and as I was going through I was correcting bad spelling, grammar, etc. (mainly through the spell checker) but gave up after thirteen chapters as a futile effort. :/
I think everyone edits as
I think everyone edits as they go to some extent. I think I have a lower tolerance partly because of the language barriers put up by some authors who don't live in the UK.
Quote: Does anyone else do
Does anyone else do this? Or am I just crazy?
Oh, I do that, too. Sometimes there are fics I couldn't read without mentally editing them. You know those fics where the author's plot is fun and different, but his mechanics leave a lot to be desired.
Still, there's a well-defined limit to the amount of on-the-fly editing I'm willing to do.
That doesn't necessarily mean you're not crazy, though.
No, you're not crazy...
I do the same thing too ( and I really can't turn it off ) and I think there's a lot of people, especially on this site that do it as well. And you're right about it knocking you out of the story too. Sometimes the story's good enough, despite the flaws, that the story is still enjoyable. Other times, it's a fatal flaw.
Oh I do that all the time!
Oh I do that all the time! I do beta sometimes, though not regularly, so that might be why. I've done a lot of editing through out my life though. Especially now, as I am one of the only native English speakers in my classes; I end up editing all group work. I really really hate being thrown out of a story. I sometimes see small errors where I know what people meant and can keep going with only mild annoyance, but when I get to something where it confuses the sentence I get really annoyed. I suppose this is because I have to stop and figure out what they meant to say, since what they did made no sense at all.
So no, you aren't crazy.
I don't think I do it cos I
I don't think I do it cos I don't really know what you mean ... erm ... I ahve been known to be incredibly dense however. I know I edit what i write like five times before it sees the beta.
Kezza, it happens whenever you're reading something, anything.
While part of your brain is following the story another part is going," wrong verb tense...should be "this" instead. Wrong spelling...wrong word--I think they mean this. Redundant word--could have been left out or changed to..." or at least, that's how it works for me. It's sort of like simultaneous translation. LOL!
Oh yeah I do that when I
Oh yeah I do that when I read stories. I actually change them when I'm re-reading mine. In other stories tense changes and stuff annoy me but I can get past them. I go through phases and atm my I ahte this and it will throw me out of the story phase is things like busy-haired know-it-all friend.
Jonathan_Avery wrote: Does
Does anyone else do this? Or am I just crazy?
I call it my "wiki-mode", a hold-out from all the years I have spent tweaking (or sometimes just putting the boot into) articles on Wikipedia.
Sometimes I wish it could be possible to mark all the little things you see in someone's story, and have those marks sent to them for acceptance or rejection, but I can see how much of a nightmare that could be if it got out of hand.
NotACat wrote: Sometimes I
Sometimes I wish it could be possible to mark all the little things you see in someone's story, and have those marks sent to them for acceptance or rejection, but I can see how much of a nightmare that could be if it got out of hand.
Seems to me like you might end up with far too many little marks. Hundreds. Thousands, even. Much too much bother.
Absolutely Yes I most
Absolutely
Yes I most defiantly do that of course I also do it with my own post then re read them think there fine then send them out . Of course a couple of day later I re read them again I find I have posted a complete mess & yet I find most authors & that include all the ones here still take the time to decipher my ramblings & post a reply so yes I defiantly edit storeys on the fly plus I have a very high threshold for spelling & its defiantly something I wont mark a story down for as I know first had how tough it can be if you do have trouble spelling.
James
This was spell checked with ms word so any error or omission are not mine but Microsoft’s