In the Spirit of Poe and Proofing …
Check this out—my fellow Supernatural Undergrounder, AA Bell has a post up now on “Editing: How Much is Too Much In The Pursuit of Perfection?”
How apposite is that? I have to say, that when I first saw it yesterday it felt very apposite indeed given a big part of what I have been realising over the past ten days, with the first pass proof for The Gathering of the Lost, is that you can definitely over-edit. And that is a big part of what I meant on Wednesday 16, here, about not losing the (already) good in pursuit of the perfect, ie yes, if one works on something forever, one might get it to a state of nigh perfection. Or one might kill it completely dead. And even if you don’t (kill it dead that is), the chances are that the revisions are only working on somewhere between 1-10% of the whole—and the other 90-99% is already more than good enough to be shared wth the world. So my motto as I got into the proofing process quickly became: I’ll only change this if there is a strong/compelling reason to do so, rather than thinking: “If only I xyz, maybe this could be even better …”
(And if I work on it for the rest of my life maybe it could be absolutely perfect (& no one would ever get to read it): yeah, right!)
But back to AA’s post: Where does the Poe come in? Well, AA uses a quote from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven to illustrate all the various editorial options—and it is rather fun to see what she does with it, so I invite you to head on over and do just that, here.
(I have suddenly been struck by a dreadul fear that this is something only a writing geek—I will not say nerd—would appreciate. But oh yes, that’s right, I am a writing geek, so who cares if my geek-gal slip is showing: anyone who visits this blog knows that about me already! 😉 )
From one geek to another: thank you for the link. That piece is compulsory reading and a cautionary tale for all who edit.
Cautionary, indeed! I laughed and shivered at the same time when I read it. I suppose it’s one of my arguments in relation to poetry in particular, although I think it also applies to prose, which is that it isn’t just about precision of meaning in a mot juste sense, but also about the music of the language, creating atmosphere, and the leap to the larger meaning. Being willing to pare down is important, and frequently necessary, but one can go too far—and sometimes, more can really be more.