Editing, THAT part of writing

"I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil."
-Truman Capote

When I first started out in writing, it took everything in my brain and self-confidence just to put my words on paper. Even then I was scared of the great white space. In those days, I had a huge office typewriter that one had to push down with all one's might and because I was poor I had paper I stole from the public school which was cheap and erasing it meant a hole in the paper. I wanted my words to be golden and unchangeable because I knew what those changes meant to my finished paper.

What made it worse was the fact that I was dyslexic although I did not know the word at the time. Again, I went through Hell trying to get a finished copy that did not need editing and of course that never happened. I don't know what would have happened if the personal computer did not come my way. I do know my grades were minimal in my undergraduate days but were much better because I had a personal computer in my graduate years. The difference was the ability to edit easily. I am one of those writers that need to do it over and over again.

Years before, I wrote everything by hand and then erased, crossed out and then pasted over it with strips of paper and then typed it out. It was a hard process. I did not have a typist or secretary to help me out as many writers in the past had or a brilliant mind as others did. W. Somerset Maugham had a secretary who edited his work along with her duties to type up his stories. Sometimes, writers mailed in their work in longhand and the typists at the publishers typed it.

I learned to type on the tips of my fingers so never had long fingernails. I never liked them anyhow but their existence was an impossibility for me because manual typewriters had to be banged very hard. Now, my fingers just glide over the keys with the greatest of ease and I love it as I watch the words appear on the screen. I remember watching a television program in which this young kid had trained to be a doctor and at the end of the program he would write in his electronic diary or journal. I never got over that image as he wrote and the audience watched his words appear on their television screen.

Editing for me is so much part of the process of writing that I can't do it without that essential step at the end of putting the words down. To me it is like a sculptor and what he or she does with the object of art. You shape it this way and then refine it until it appears the way you want it to. You look up the words and find the one you want. I use to have a dozen dictionaries and
thesauruses and have them around me as I wrote. Now, all I need is the Internet. When I was teaching, I always taught the students the easy way of checking one's spelling and definition as well as look for other similar words and it is so much easier than it used to be. There is always some joker in the neighborhood who looks down his or her nose and says that this modern way takes away from learning it. Well, phooey to them. This very dyslexic person loves the new way of writing and editing. I have learned from the wisdom from W. Somerset Maugham not to give a damn about anyone's opinion about anything. Thank you Mr. Maugham.

I have always felt that Truman Capote was the best editor in that after he wrote, he spent a lot of time shaping what he wrote into easily read prose. He never forgot his editing roots. Yes, there are those stories of writers who produce perfect writing without any editing. I don't believe it. Maugham tells of a story in which he met the Nobel winning writer, Colette, who writes exceptional easily read prose and she told him how she would spend hours trying to get one page right. Colette who is not read much these days wrote "Gigi" .

With all of this said, I don't know how many times I have written something, edited it and then pushed the button for publish such as this blog and found little things that I missed. On this blog, I can correct it but in some places that I post I can't. Editing, of course, does not reside in the fingers but in the eyes. You have to see what is really there on the screen instead of what you meant to be there. There is a poster on a forum that I participate in ever so often and he often says his posts say this or that and they don't. He swears they do but the times I go up on the forum to the posts to check, they don't. He is always bragging he has a PhD in something but it isn't in editing. He never checks his own posts and reads what is really there. We all make this sort of mistakes but a professional writer like myself should be more aware than those who don't.

You have to see your assets and deficits clearly and adjust your writing to make the most of them. Maugham in "The Summing Up", which I am presently reading for the second time, had a skill for plain writing and dialogue. He did not have the talent for using vast numbers of words and complex twists of phrases so instead of trying he just went after what he did do well. He was a good observer of what happened around him. He adapted for it. He edited his work for it. That is why his work even today is so readable. Many critics state that he is not read that much anymore but his books for the most part are still in copyright and there are movies still being done on his books and stories. In your editing process, don't try to put something in your writing that isn't there because you are not good at it. Some of the criticism I have read about John Steinbeck said he wrote too simple prose. Thank goodness he did not change to accommodate those silly critics. His work is still in copyright and read today and reads wonderfully.

Another writer who I am sorry to say I forgot his or her name said "kill your babies". That means when you have written something that seems that it could stand next to Shakespeare and you are editing it and the most memorable phrase just does not fit, you have to ax it. You have to kill that baby. I have done that many times with tears running down my face. Oh, it was so good, but no one will ever know it. Sigh...

Then there is the other side. I gave a story once to a writer who was a friend (we did not stop being friends because of it.) who criticized it for several reasons. I chose to ignore those reasons and submitted it to an important contest and won it. We can accept editing from an editor or publisher or we can reject it. The final decision always rests with the writer, always....

I write this blog on writing and few people ever read it. It used to hurt my feelings ever so often. I also had to edit my writing so many times that it hurt my feelings. My goodness everything hurt my feelings. I am learning to get over that. It's a big world out there. There is room for me as well as other writers. The one thing that is a necessity for all writers is the scissors as Capote states or editing. I am awful glad I finally learned that.

O. Henry's Two Rules of Writing

September 11, 2010

Today is O. Henry's birthday and thanks to Writers' Almanac (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2010/09/11) I was reminded of this. He was born William Sidney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862.

I have not been a fan of this author for some time because I was forced to read him all through my school years and television in those early years often used his stories as playhouse productions. I got tired of his stories although they were very good ones.

He had many occupations in his life including licensed pharmacist, convicted felon, shepherd, domestic servant, bank teller and baby sitter. Many of his stories were written while he sat in prison for embezzlement.

Many biographies will tell you that O. Henry was an alcoholic but they also will tell you that he was one gifted writer with hundreds of stories to his name. He died at the age of 47 from liver disease.

In 1909, he gave an autobiographical interview of himself for the New York Times. One part of it bears repeating:

"I'll give you the whole secret of short-story writing. Here it is Rule I: write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule II."

Right now I am working on a book of short stories. I have never attempted to do that before. The one thing I can attest to, is that it is no fun writing short stories that don't please oneself. In fact, it is pure drudgery when you attempt to write what is popular and salable instead of what pleases the self. Many books will tell you that you need to research the market first and then write what is selling. The stories that I have sold were ones that I did not research the market first. I just wrote what pleased me. I am not a writer like O.Henry, but if a writer is not having fun writing, what good is it to be a writer? W. Somerset Maugham in his book, "The Summing Up", called the writer the last free human being. We are. Let's have fun while we are at it and write what we want. The Hell with market research and pay attention to rule no. I.

Happy Birthday O. Henry!

Writing and Reading

I have mentioned before that I have trouble getting books in English here in Korea. I have found a set of books that are not expensive but are of the classic authors of the past for the most part. They are written both in Korean and English. The books are complete and that was a concern or they seem to be. They are bound in quality paperback and have a nice feel to them.

The reason I am bringing this up is a gem of a book that I picked up in this series, "The Summing Up", by W. Somerset Maugham. Forget all books about creative writing and get this one. I have never heard of it but it is by far the best I have ever read and is full of helpful advice and clear writing that when I read it I swoon in admiration of this author and wish I read this particular book years ago.

To be honest, I have read all of his novels and most of his short stories through the years. Then I learned that he taught himself to write by reading authors that wrote the way he thought he wanted to write. He wrote this book in 1938. He is clear in what he expects from his authors. He expects three qualities in the order of importance: lucidity, simplicity and euphony. I had to look up the definition of euphony which is agreeableness of sound, pleasing to the ear. I sometimes read authors out loud but never thought of their agreeableness of sound as important. Still, two authors he admired were Voltaire and Colette who are favorites of mine especially Colette.

I joined a writers' group once and was surprised at the number of writers who never read at all. They were writers who were not published or were self-published. I did not stay with this group for very long because they could not get the membership list straightened out and I never got a newsletter although I paid my dues.

Every writer I knew that was published both personally and through their work had one thing in common. They all read. What Maugham said about teaching himself how to write was something I already knew. You find writers that you like and admire and you read everything they write and imitate how they do it and then make the best things they do your own.

You would think such simple advice would be just that, too simple; but at that writers' club it was advice most of the writers there that I met did not take. Some of the writers even gave talks to libraries and they were proud of the fact that they did not read. I remember sitting there during those meetings and talks shaking my head and wondering if I had just landed on some strange planet.

I have to read. I also have to write and I often have a hard time distinguishing between the two of these activities as they seem to blend and accentuate each other. It is clear that Maugham had that desire and love as well.