Writing and Editing

guest writer Marc Hodgkinson

Marc Hogdkinson on writing and editing

The sentence you are reading has been edited. In fact, every part of this piece will have been scrutinized, massaged, partially deleted, reevaluated and restructured. My name is Marc and I am a "Constant-Tinkerer."

A professor of mine once said, "It is awful to write; but, it is wonderful to have written." This highlights both the necessity and tedium of the writing and editing process. Any good written work will logically involve editing. The act of scrutinizing and refining a work is the trench-work in the writer's craft.

However, my writing and editing process has mutated into a bit of a mongrel. I now describe myself as a Constant-Tinkerer because my editing and my writing are harmoniously fused. Each line of text I put on my computer screen is temporary.

It is, in a way, getting a tryout: a rookie getting a shift on the top-line while under the meticulous scrutiny of the coaches.

I write and then re-evaluate what I have written. Rarely, will it suffice. My left hand moves to my coffee as my right hand instinctively cups my mouse. The text is highlighted, sections are removed, new words are given their day in court and the editing dance goes on.

Genesis of the Constant Tinkerer

This began innocently enough. My word processor, like many, underscores misspelled words in red. My compulsive nature, although mild, always forced me to make the correction immediately. Over time, this corrective impulse has grown and any notion of free-form, rapid writing is a distant memory. The writer and the editor are now one.

Robertson Davies famously decried the word processor because text could so easily be manipulated and, worse still, deleted. I think about that often as I commit the very crime he describes. The Constant-Tinkerer in me embodies everything that Davies' despised.

I will admit, I regularly delete sentences that have merit. Sometimes, I stumble onto a clever metaphor or work out a tricky turn of a phrase. However, my editing demons are impulsive, heartless and lightning fast and the sentence will vanished, relegated to the some digital purgatory.

I suppose to continue the earlier sports metaphor, I might suggest it will be sent back to the minors. However, more often than not, this demotion is a permanent assignment.

Beyond Tinkering

This affliction is compounded by my penchant for multi-taking. While writing and editing this very piece, I have answered emails, made lunch, cleaned the kitty litter and washed the dishes. This generates a new wrinkle in my writing process which I have dubbed "The Overhaul."

The Overhaul starts shortly after I have breached the half-way point. Typically, I experience some feeling of success and I reward myself by taking a few minutes away from the computer screen.

Fresh coffee is brewed, a cold drink may be poured or, if I am feeling particularly satisfied, a round of X-Box Golf may follow.

Eventually, I return to my work and, in order to begin, I start to re-read what I have written. As you might have guessed, it is impossible for me to read without additional tinkering.

Snowflake becomes avalanche and "The Overhaul" ensues. Complete paragraphs are now in jeopardy as I carve my way through my work with the subtlety of a drunk on a dance floor. If my process of constant tinkering is a surgeon, the overhaul is a butcher. But, fear not, my surgeon will return to clean up the mess that my butcher has created, or destroyed.

This does not, however, mean that my writing is flawless. I write well and I edit well yet, I do neither perfectly. I still get confused by semi-colons and I have a terrible habit of switching my tense. I wish that my tinkering made me flawless; but I still require a good editor to help me with the finer details.

The pleasure & the pain of writing and editing

I've never asked another writer about their editing process so I have no idea if my affliction is isolated. If questioned about a work, a writer will usually discuss the genesis of the idea or pinpoint a rationale for a particular decision. The hard labour of writing is rarely postulated.

Perhaps, it is being thankfully forgotten. Most often, writers share with me new ideas they have brewing. I suppose they are looking forward to the next piece in an effort to forget the tedium of the last.

It is, as my professor suggested, awful to write and wonderful to have written; but, having written is not satisfaction enough to keep us from writing, and tinkering, again.

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