Editing for life:

Editing for life:

Okay readers, let’s talk editing. A major part of being a writer is editing your own work. It can be difficult to decide what to remove of your writing and what is working and should be left in. But the hope is that after editing, your novel, or story etc. will be the best version of itself that it can be.

Thinking about this made me pause and consider; what if we all spent time editing our lives like we do to our stories? What if we took the time to be honest with ourselves and decide what in our lives is not making our life the best version of itself that it can be. We should review everything in our lives from beginning to end, the relationships we have, the hobbies that we have, the personality traits we have and we should ask ourselves if we should be changing any of these.
Are any of these things dragging you down? If so, even though it may not be easy, it will more than likely make your life better to press that delete button and remove those things. Just like editing a novel this will take time and honesty with yourself. You will no doubt have to review whether or not your steps toward improvement are working and if not change them again. But, it feels great when you delete a section from a story that is a little boring and instead replace it with an interesting event that makes your story soar with excitement and you realize that that is what the story was missing all along.

It is the same in life. I am not a perfect person by any means and there are many things that need to work on changing or improving to make my life better. I know that when I have done this in the past, it has always improved my life as a whole. For example, for a long time I forgot about writing. I forgot how wonderful it made me feel to put my thoughts down on paper. I told myself I was too busy, I was in school trying to get my masters degree. I was working and living life. During that time I did not think about trying to write anything and I felt like something was missing in my life. A couple of years later when I had the idea for my Elven Quest novels, at first I ignored it, thinking that I didn’t have time to write. However, the idea kept popping into my head with more and more detail, so eventually I sat down and started writing. For the next few years I made the time to write, despite what else was going on in my life. I wrote some of my book every day or every other day and I felt so fulfilled again. I finally felt like that piece of my soul that had been pushed out of place was in place again.

After I finished the first and second novel, I again had that feeling that something was missing. When I tried to sit down and write it felt forced and so for a while I did not write anything new. Instead, I focused on editing those two books and working to try to get them published. Eventually, that nagging feeling that something was wrong and that a piece was pushed out of place again returned. I started to wonder what I was supposed to do now. What was I supposed to write? Then like a dream, some story ideas for continuations to the Elven Quest series came to me and I began writing again and this time it was not forced at all, it just clicked and worked. But it was because I sat and did some reflecting and I asked myself, what did I want to have in my life to make it more fulfilling and a better version of itself? That is when my gut told me to put aside some of the other writings that I had started and instead focus on these new ideas. Once I listened to my gut, I felt much happier at my keyboard and in my life. Now I feel the same about blogging. I thought that I would hate it at first. I talked myself out of doing a blog because I told myself I was a novelist I write long books I can’t write a short one or two paged blog. But when I finally listened to my inner editor and added this exciting new venture into my life I found more and more that it is improved and continues to improve my life and my personal story.

My newest aspiration is to help other writers on their journeys to telling their stories. So, in order to fulfill this goal for myself, I have exciting news. I have joined Upworks.com as a freelance editor, proofreader, ghostwriter, and mentor for other writers. Feel free to email me at my outlook email or write to me at Upworks if you need my help dear readers, I would be honored to help you.

So the lesson here is, don’t be afraid of editing readers. Learn to embrace your inner editing critic and when they tell you to delete something from your personal life’s story or add something new in, just give it a try. You do not have to be an expert at something in order for it to give you a sense of fulfillment and purpose. If you try, free of judgment, you might find, to your surprise, that it does make you happier and more fulfilled and that feeling is definitely one you should all strive for, to be the best version of yourself and to have the best version of your life that you can possibly have. Try new things, shine your personal light, and until next time dear readers remember, writing=happiness. ;)