To edit or not to edit

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Just a quick reminder, Albuquerque ladies, Girls Night Out at Sheraton Uptown is tomorrow night at six! I’ll be there with all of my books, as well as some great freebies and the latest edition of Mavguard – come by and pick up some great Christmas presents from some fabulous Albuquerque locals, and share the female pride! Woo!

But for today, it’s still NaNoWriMo, technically, and that means I definitely want to talk about writing… But I’m an editor. You all know that. I primarily think of myself as a writer, but by trade I am an editor. And that’s why you might be surprised by what I have to say today.

Editing is important. So it proofreading. But they’re not the end of the world, if you don’t get around to them.

*gasp*

I know, I’m sure you’re all in shock. Allow me to explain.

See, editing and proofreading are what get a novel to the point of publication, but that’s not always what we’re going for. Yeah, I always say that we create so we can show people, so people will see the beauty we’ve created, but for some of us, that’s not why we’re in this. We’re in this for the joy of it, for the bliss and release of being able to create. I’ll admit, sometimes I feel that way. There are some stories I’ve written for the sheer release of it, for the emotion to get out of my head and onto a page, and I have no intention of ever showing them to anyone in a public fashion. But not all of them are that way.

For some of us, writing is an escape, and nothing more.

For others, it’s a means to an end.

For still others, it’s somewhere in the middle.

But either way, editing, proofreading, they might not always be necessary. For a story that’s never going to see the light of day, who cares? For works that you’re unsure on, why waste the time and effort? But for works that you want to publish, yeah, it should be something that you consider having professionally done.

But I’m going to say it one more time: it’s not the end of the world if you don’t do it. Nowadays, we can publish ourselves very easily and get our works out in the world with little to no effort at all. So if that’s the route you want to go, then don’t bother with professional editing.

For those of you who really want to be seen, who really want to achieve some goal with your writing, it might not be the case. But that’s not everyone, is it? And the others don’t get mentioned nearly enough, methinks. 

Consider yourselves mentioned, folks. Boom. 

[love]

{Rani D.}