Editing short stories

[JamieRae]

Good afternoon one and all!

I'm finally putting pen to paper this weekend and will begin to pen some short story ideas. I'm curious as to some of your processes when editing the story after a rough edged first draft. I understand that it can very much be a process you develop yourself using your own methods, but really interested to hear what others are doing. Thanks so much!

 

[CageSage]

Yes, I'd be interested, too.
My process is a lot of pre-writing, several drafts of the 'vision', several views of endings that are the third or fourth option to test for resonance and power, and editing to use just the right word in place of several explainer words.
At the end of the initial processes, I tighten and smooth and sharpen. My goal in the final part of the process is to make it an easy read for the reader, nothing to knock them out of the world of the story.

 

[CageSage]

The best book help I've found for short story understanding is Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight (or if you look for ePub, Reanimus Press). Still the best for most forms of shorts, in my humble opinion, unless you go for literary ... but maybe even then ...

 

[Nikky Lee]

Nearly all my short fiction is based around prompts/themes. For some reason that stops my writer brain from concocting ideas that are epic three book trilogies. As for process, I'm a plantser - i.e. a pantser with a vague plan, so most of my editing is me ironing out character/world/plot inconsistencies that I've changed as I've discovered the story. If I'm working to a word count, I sometimes need to do a second run through to trim words. I'll then give it to beta readers for feedback. Depending on how much I need address from their feedback, I may do a second round of betas if I've made drastic changes. From there I'll tidy it up, run a final spellcheck/proof and send it off on submission.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'm with @Nmlee --I have to keep my short fiction based on prompts or themes to keep it short. Depending on the story, sometimes I plan it out completely, other times I just write, with a vague idea of where I'm going. I almost always start on paper--what I write there may or may not make it to the draft on the computer, but it gets me into the story--helps me explore the setting and characters. Either way, once the first draft is finished, I check to make sure my plot is as compelling as possible--often that means rewriting the ending a few times to get it just right. The ending of a short story is a tricky thing, and I often overshoot and write too much. Once I'm confident of the story, I try to remove at least a third of the words--looking for better verbs, taking out repetition or needless detail, sharpening dialogue. Then I get a few readers for feedback, and do another edit afterwards to address the feedback. I'll get more readers if I've made big changes. I often tweak stories between submissions, too. If something's rejected a few times, I'll revisit it and see if I can improve it.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

My short stories are also almost always based on prompts/themes. I tend to mull over them until I have the story in my head, including the ending, then I write in long-hand. Once that's done and I've left it a couple of days, I transfer onto the computer which counts as my first edit (a lot of waffle goes at that stage). Second edit is making sure the wordcount and pacing is right. Then I do the line edit (the right verb etc).
Until a story is accepted, if I like it, I will revisit it and tweak between submissions. I always find places where I can improve the story.