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Write Drunk, Edit Sober: Fiction Editing Tips and Tricks

May 24, 2020

I hate editing my fiction. I hate everything about it; the way it sucks life out of a text, the way it’s a clinical, passionless process. But you gotta do what you gotta do. In my long, sometimes painful writing career, I’ve learned a thing or two about editing. Today, I’m sharing these fiction editing tips and tricks that will hopefully spare you some frustration.

As you might remember from earlier posts, the phrase “write drunk, edit sober” is attributed to Ernest Hemingway. It’s quite probable that Hemingway never said such a thing, but that’s irrelevant. The quote is memorable, and its advice solid – though there is a twist in the plot, as we will see. You do need to write with emotion (“drunk”) and you do need to edit without it (“sober”).

Fiction editing is a diverse process, and there are more than one right ways to do it. I certainly don’t claim that my fiction editing tips are the best for you, let alone the only ones.

I’m only sharing these fiction editing tips – perhaps one day I’ll share my nonfiction editing tips, too – to inspire you and give you a head start. Take what you can use, discard the rest – there’s a meta-editing tip there, if you’re perceptive 😉

fiction editing tips
“Write drunk, edit sober” can be seen as the first of my fiction editing tips. In other words, you need to write with passion, but be as objective as possible during the editing process
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Why Rewriting a Novel Is a Bad Idea

September 29, 2018

Inspiration for this post came after I read about someone almost bragging about having just finished the 26th rewrite of their novel. Editing your book is an essential key to success. Tweaking things here and there or changing your mind and rewriting, say, the ending, can be useful. But there is no benefit in rewriting a novel. I am rarely so absolute in my declarations when it comes to literature, but I’m doing it now.

Rewriting a novel is about as useful as trying to please your audience, and twice as pointless. If a novel needs rewriting as opposed to editing then you are much better off scrapping the whole thing and writing a new story. Let’s see why.

rewriting a novel
Frustration will be the guaranteed result of multiple rewrites. Unless of course, if self-delusion kicks in as a defense mechanism
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