Self-Editing by Lori Handeland
Lori Handeland’s great article on self-editing may be aimed squarely at fiction writers, but writers of nonfiction–especially creative nonfiction and first person essays–would do well to have a look at this, too.
What’s the most important thing about telling a good story? Can you really boil it down to a single mechanical something? Lori’s article says no–there are a number of issues working in concert to make a story shine.
Self-editing is an important part of the process. From giving your piece the once-over to make sure you have consistent point-of-view to avoiding repetition and needless thumbnail sketches, there’s a lot you can do to tweak that creative non-fiction article.
We found a lot of good things–not just the self editing article–at Eclectics.com, but sadly this site hasn’t been updated since January. Here’s hoping it’s not dark for good…we’d like to see more like the Self Editing piece.
My boil-down something isn’t mechanical at all, but it applies across the board: At the end of the piece, does the reader wonder of his own accord how the whole applies to him? The greatest compliment I’ve received on my writing thus far is that the reader has decided to write something after having seen, making me something of a muse in addition to an author, and that, to me, qualifies success.
Indeed–it’s getting the reader to that personal place that’s the real key to making it work. Once you’re there you could have a reader for life…never a bad thing.