Editing. Er, Chucking. Ouch.

Last night I was editing the second and third chapters of my book, An Offbeat Path Through Yoga. I was working my way through my first round of red pen edits, where I examine the text from a 10,000 foot level and mark up glaring problems, pacing issues, and major grammar oopsies.

And last night I decided that sometimes editing should instead be called chucking. Because sometimes you look at the text every which way, tilting your head, scribbling in the margins, and then you finally say, "You know what? This just needs to be totally cut out."

And ouch, ooh, yuck. It hurts to throw away words!

I would raise an eyebrow at anyone who says the chucking process doesn't at least invoke a mild internal grimace. Because at this point you realize you have nothing to actually edit. It's just bad, and so bad that it needs to go.

Now cutting chunks of words out doesn't mean that the work as a whole sucks. I think it's important to try to figure out what story you're actually trying to tell, because there are so many stories and it can be easy to lose focus. And sometimes this means cutting out the wrong story so you can focus on the right one.

So the silver lining of it all is that you can redeem yourself as a writer for being intelligent and insightful enough to know what needs to go. Because who wants to publish a bunch of rubbish? I surely don't. And if the painful chucking process gets me closer to where I need to be, then I'll push forward and rip it apart.

A fellow writer told me, when I was afraid to begin the editing process, that I shouldn't worry about it. Because if for whatever reason it sucks, well, you can just edit it until it doesn't. And I think he has a good point.

So how do you feel about cutting chunks of words out of your drafts? Is it easy for you? Hard? Exciting? Please do share!