Self-editing for fiction writers: Editing practice

Editing is one of those things that's really hard to teach.  You kind of have to learn by *doing* more than anything.  An ear for language, a good understanding of grammar, and general nit-picky-ness help, too.

I've been dabbling in drabble of late, primarily because I don't seem to have a lot of uninterrupted time in which to write.  I have several longer projects on the go, but was looking for something I could finish in one to two sittings, so I'd at least have *something* done.

Writing drabble is an excellent way to practice your editing skills.  Why?  If you're like me, your first draft (and your second, and your third, and your fourth) will be way over the 100-word limit.  To get your story down to 100 words, you have to look at each and every single word.  Does it belong?  What does it do?  Can one word work where you've got several?  How much can you cut and still keep the essence of the story?  What is the essence of the story, anyway?

More interesting, at least to the grammar geek in me, is that writing in such a short form forces you to interact, on a very intimate level, with the words on the page, and with their underlying structure and function.  You end up engaging with your work so closely that you'll learn a lot about how you write and the types of things (whether literary conventions, words, or phrases) that frequently occur within your writing.  Regardless, I think it's an excellent exercise to expand your editing horizons.  Telling a story in 100 words, exactly, is harder than it looks.

"Cornered" short story published today!

My short-short-short story (a form otherwise known as "drabble") titled "Cornered" was published today at The Were-Traveller!  This is the one I was griping about a while back ... I was stuck at 102 words and needed to cut two, managed to cut one, then spent an hour (!) tinkering with it to get that last word cut.  Thankfully, it's now found a good home, in esteemed company ... there's some awesome work available in this edition.  Go check it out!  You know you want to!*

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*Yes, I realize I've used my monthly allotment of exclamation points in one blog post.  Sometimes, you've just got to use more than one.