Submitted by: xXTheDragonRiderXx
"Editing's so hard." "Editing takes up too much time." "My draft is already perfect; I don't need to look it over."
This was me two or three years ago; and I'm quite sure that this is at least 80% of you reading this, right? Well, suck it up. You have to edit if you want to produce something decent, at least a little bit.
"But, people already says my stuff is good and I don't edit. "Editing's such a waste of time, K." "I don't see any benefits to editing though."
Here's the thing, editing isn't a waste of time. You can improve your first draft so much it doesn't look like you wrote it, and editing isn't boring. It's hard, yeah. It takes a lot of work. I suppose that may be because requires critical thinking over just raw . . . emotion. However, it can be even more fun than writing a first draft, because you have a baseline to work from. You're taking something that's rudimentary, something that, while you know what happened, hasn't really been shaped into anything yet.
And yes, while your first drafts may be already good, why not make them better?
I have two examples from two different stories.
First Draft:
I saw Percy jump up on the ledge, and he nearly lost his balance but I caught him. He was panting slightly and the upper part of his arm was bleeding. His sea-green eyes where darker and swirling like mini-tropical storms.
"So, any ideas?" Percy asked, grinning slightly.
"Nope." I said, popping the 'P'. "You?"
"Sort of, but it is mad like, as in insane mad." Percy said.
"Then that means we'll use it, improvise, and try not to die." I said then dodged the Python's tail. Nico and Bianca were summoning the dead while Piper was charmspeaking it. "Oh wait, what is your plan?"
"Try not to die?" Percy suggested.
"Okay, new plan then." I said, and told him the plan. His eyes widened but he nodded, and began chanting in something even more Ancient than Greek, but I knew what he was saying.
"'I Apprentice of Chaos, call down on his powers to merge myself with Annabeth Chase, Goddess of Maidens, Daughter of Athena and apprentice to Chaos, to defeat the Ancient Enemy...'" and it went on like that. I felt my power start to flow and Percy's to come into me. I realized that powers were merging as one, and Percy grabbed my hand. He looked at me and I nodded.
We both surged forward as one, calling down on the power of Chaos to defeat Python. I summoned water and the power left over from the Mark of Athena as Percy did the same. We both sent it at Python, expertly dodging the head.
I drew my dagger, and this time I knew that it wasn't the ledge that was getting wider, we were getting higher somehow. I dodged Python's head while Percy rolled to my left, narrowly avoiding its tail. I slashed with my dagger while Percy hacked with Riptide, when I suddenly realized what the prophecy meant. Two as one...
"Percy! Get over here!" I shouted, and Percy looked at me like I was nuts but managed to come over.
"What's wrong Beth?" He asked, dodging to one side.
"Two as one! Do you get it?" I shouted, and cut into Python's skin.
"No." Percy answered truthfully, looking at me weirdly, and then sudden realization went across his face. "Do you mean..."
"This is our final stand? Yes Seaweed Brain, I do. One shall indeed have the final stand, two souls, working as one."
Last Draft
