Five Things Editing Has Taught Me

1. There’s a good chance that the character you conceieve the day you write your first word is entirely different from one who closes out the story.
2. “If it sticks out as egregious now, I’ll definitely be able to find it later on the next read-through” is totally, completely, and utterly false. (2a. There is no such thing as not reading for edits.)
3. Nothing on the page is permanent.
4. The ghost of what you’ve erased will always be there, even if it’s just in tiny little words that you know you took out eons ago.  Sometimes, it’s simply obnoxious; usually, it’s a source of endless inside jokes with yourself that you could have ever crafted something that sounded so vile.
5. It can always be better.  Always.

And good lord, I must stop with modifiers.  I have Modifying Modifers Snydrome.

M