The Devil is in The Details

Inspired by sci-fi movies and TV shows as a kid, I began writing my own stories. Over the years, I started (and even finished) many stories of varying lengths. First, they were written by hand; eventually I typed them. (I was 9 when I started writing in earnest. If you’re curious, that was 1981 or so. I didn’t get my first real computer until 1985).

For a long time, I wanted to be a writer. But then I bought into the idea that writers are starving artists, you can’t make money as a writer, that’s not a real job, and blah, blah, blah. Even knowing that, I wrote in fits and spurts, still creating and expanding new stories.

When the COVID pandemic shut the world down for a time, I took a new approach to writing. More focus, more discipline, and creating plans. Before I knew it, I had 9 completed books in less than 5 years!

Many details go into the writing alone. But that’s only the beginning. The devil is in the details, and the world involves effort and focus on many different levels.

Writing is fun but also work

I find that it’s a lot of fun to sit down with a new idea and start writing it. For most of my early writing, I worked as a pantser (or what Joanna Penn and others call a Discovery Writer). Pantser is my preferred term, as it’s apt for me. I would sit down and start writing by the seat of my pants. Hell, I once wrote 2 books in a series before I fully knew what the plot was (I even published the first of those).

Writing can make me lose track of time as the characters and situations leave my head and find their way onto the screen (or page). I find a degree of deep satisfaction when I am creating something new.

There are, of course, details that can’t be overlooked when writing. Even before I get to editing, I must pay attention to my sentence structure, word choices, character dialogue nuances, and more. If I refer to a piece of tech by a certain name or acronym, that needs to be consistent. If I’m writing a fight, I need to block it out in my head so that it makes sense.

Writing is work, but no rule says work can’t and shouldn’t be fun. Yet, if what I’m writing is being shared, there are the above details to take into consideration.

When you remember the details, your story is more coherent, your editing is less absurd when you get to it, and you can evolve it into the overall joy of storytelling via writing practice.  Yes, writing and the details that go into it are work, but also fun.

The details and editing

One rule I follow, and share with others, is that editing shouldn’t happen until you’re done. This is for a couple of reasons. First, many a would-be writer gets so bogged down in going back and editing what they write that they never finish. Second, unless you have done something in your work that significantly alters another thing you already wrote, and you need to go back and change it to keep going, you should just write on to the end. Again, details matter, but done is better than perfect.

Editing is a must. This is especially important to self-published writers. If you don’t edit your work, you are compromising quality. This is one of those details that are insanely important to professionalism.

For me, editing is a three-part process. Once I finish my writing, I start part one. This is where I read through my work. Specifically, I read aloud. It’s amazing what your ear picks up that your eyes and mind alone can miss. I check for repetition, any clarity issues, and the first pass at spelling errors and typos.

The second part of my editing process is sending it to a professional editor. Look, I’m not perfect in any way, shape, or form. I can, will, and do miss things. Hence, as a matter of the devil in the details, having a professional editor to edit my work is necessary.

Then comes part three. Going over the editor’s edits. First, they can and will miss stuff. Second, they sometimes make changes you don’t want (this is often applied to dialogue). Third, they might find something that you neglected or show you where large revisions for added clarity and details are important.

Writing and editing done, now comes putting it out in the world.