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Blogs by Joshua Scribner
Short story and flash editing process 3/8/2009 2:25:19 PM
One acceptance letter so far today, ending the streak of rewrite requests at two. “The Gate” will be in the April issue of Brave Blue Mice.
I had an out of body experience this morning, and it was awesome. As I lay in bed, I got to thinking about snowmobiling. Then I started experiencing the actual sensations of snowmobiling and realized that I was awake within a dreamlike experience. I rolled from my body and flew up into the air. The sensations were amazing. I yelled out with pleasure, hoping my body, still in bed, wasn’t also yelling out, because I didn’t want to wake my wife, because I knew she would wake me. I don’t think my body did yell out. But I soon returned to it anyway. OBE, which is also called astral projection, is better than drugs.
No new writing today, just editing. Editing is probably as important a part of the story process as writing, maybe more important. I’ve streamlined how I do it, and describe my system below.
This is my editing process for short stories and flash fiction:
Each story I write is placed in column 1 of a spreadsheet, where it will likely sit for a few months while I’m editing the stories before it. I then read through it without making corrections to see if it’s worth any more of my time. About eight-five percent of stories make it out of column 1 and go directly to column 2. In column two, most of the editing is done. Depending on need, each story in column two is read approximately 3 to 10 times. The story then goes to column 3, where it is read slowly, so I can pick out the little mistakes I missed before. Then it goes to column 4, where it is printed and read. Then it goes to column 5, where I scan it for common mistakes using the search function on my word processor. Common mistakes for me usually involve phonetically similar words like to and too or there and their. At this point, I’m done editing and give it to my wife to read. Once she’s finished, I place the story in the submission cache and wait for the right publishing opportunity to open up at Ralan.com or duotrope.com.
