Book review

Intuitive Editing.

A creative and practical guide to revising your writing.

Tiffany Yates Martin.

Tell me fellow Authors. Where does the magic happen for you?
Is in the writing or in the revising?
Does it matter?

I am a drafter. For me, it’s writing that initial first draft that is magical. Once the story is on paper, I’m finished emotionally. Everything that comes after that is sheer torture. But I have met authors for whom the first draft is like shovelling sand at the start of a sandcastle competition, and the real magic is in the editing. Carving something wonderful out of that ungainly heap of nothingness.
I have struggled to find an editing system that makes sense to me. That keeps me organised without attacking the heart of my story. My head spins with oxford comma’s show don’t tell, character arcs, and weasel words.

Intuitive editing addresses those issues without me feeling I must sacrifice my story to edit it.
For those of you who love editing, Tiffany Yates Martin fills the pages with details and suggestions to make your manuscript shine from the basic structure to the outside polish.

The first section explains how to approach your revision and think like an editor and the last section covers working with a professional from finding someone to talking to them about your work.
The meat of the book offers a process. Macro edits- micro edits and line editing.
She explains the reason for each section, and here is my favourite bit. Each section has an how to find it and how to fix it.
I like the way it’s non-patronising and practical in its approach.
First, she concentrates on character, stakes, and plot. And only when they are vividly shown on the page, so we move on to finer things. Suspense and tension, show and tell, structure momentum, pace, and voice, then at last deals with the line edit. The very thing that most people are aching to do from the beginning.
Each time I write something, I struggle with some detail of editing. Each time I edit, I learn something new. I find it demoralising. I draft my book and I am the best writer ever. I edit and I am the worst, and for a while it cripples me.

This happens every single time, but now at least I am seeing progress.
Her advice is generous and encouraging, which helps me, who is permanently and irreversibly insecure. I have read books on editing that look down on the writer, making you feel as though you will never be good enough to achieve what they are suggesting. The professional is the person who matters. This is not like that this is about forming a partnership, and understanding the process so that you can be a better writer.

Remember, the more editing you do yourself before you send your work to a professional, the less you will need to pay them to do. The more chance they have of concentrating on the finer details.

So, have I put this wonderful advice into my own writing? No, of course not. But I now have somewhere to start, and something to use as a reference point. Book by book I hope to get better and while I have hope, I keep writing.

The book is now on my top ten reference books on craft.