Editing is Satisfying

Posted by Helen Brain Jul 6, 2008

I'm in the middle of editing a resource book on housing policy. It seems a strange choice considering that I'm a fiction writer, but the pay is good, and in a strange way its very satisfying.

When you write fiction your creative right brain tells you the story. When you edit your left brain takes over.

Editing a non fiction book on governmental policy is completely left brain and uncreative.

But the nice thing about it is that there is a right and wrong, a beginning, middle and end, and when it's done it's done. It's about as far from the creative process as it is possible to go.

And every now and then its just great to be able to switch off my creative brain and to earn good money tidying up someone else's writing. And the more boring, the better.

Meanwhile, my creative brain is thinking up something in the background. I can feel a story brewing, and a hunger inside me to get writing. That's a great way to build up a head of steam for a new book, and the editing buys me time to concentrate on getting that first draft down.