For two years, CPs, friends, and family heard me claim to be "editing that same story." I wasn't. I'd gutted it. Kept 70% of the cast, the top line plot, and the opening chapter. Everything else changed. You know what that's called? Not editing. That's a full-bore rewrite.
Level of Effort is what differentiates Editing, Revising, and Rewriting ... to me. If folks who get paid to be particular about correlating the appropriate verbs to specific actions care to disagree, okay fine. In my little universe, if I'm making changes to police over-used words or correct syntax, then it's editing. If I'm changing the order of events in chapters or cutting full scenes, then I'm revising. If I'm stripping everything back to the skeleton of the main plot, then that's a frippin' rewrite.
What about you, dear reader, where do you draw the lines among Editing, Revising, and Rewriting? Do you commit to the arduous changes of revisions and rewrites, or do you let the story go and move on to the next?
Photo courtesy of Grammarly on Facebook.
