Editing Analogy

When I was sitting in the library with a writing buddy, staring out the window at the river below, I started thinking about how editing was like a snake shedding its skin. How the outer skin, like superfluous words, is left behind.

But then I thought maybe a better analogy would be the life cycle of a butterfly. Your idea is like the first glimmer of an idea. Some will hatch, some won’t. One idea will make it though, just like one egg will turn into a caterpillar. The caterpillar begins to grow and expand, consuming food to gain nutrients. Your story begins to grow and expand as you add words and details.

The caterpillar finally finishes its cycle of growth. It stops and begins to shed its skin while at the same time creating a cocoon to aid in its transformation. The transformation for your story is the editing process, where your words are refined and polished. The caterpillar turns mushy as it re-forms, just as your story may get worse before it gets better.

Finally, the cocoon splits open and a beautiful butterfly emerges. You finally lay down your pen and your story or novel is done.

The novel I’m working on right now is well into the mushy stage of editing. I knew going in it was going to be a beast to edit – it’s the fifth book in a series and I thought I was being smart doing it for NaNoWriMo. I was not. NaNo was all about the quantity of words, not the quality, and I’m paying for it now.

So far I’ve scrapped the idea of starting each chapter with an excerpt from “historic records.” I rewrote the prologue three times before scrapping it altogether and starting fresh. And I’ve re-ordered the first five chapters several times.

But I’m getting closer. It may take longer than I’d hoped, but soon my story will be ready to break out of its cocoon. And I dare to say it’ll be worth the wait.