With my short story "Rain" now finish, I am editing a serious work for the first time since my return to writing. I had been fully prepared to dread the experience. Everything I had read about the editing stage seemed to be negative, except where written by a professional editor.

My experience so far, however, has been fairly positive. Editing involves a different set of challenges, but I haven't found myself begrudging this stage in the process. I can't say I don't understand the complaints of the writers who have complained about editing though. After all, editing is not writing It's not story creating. If done correctly--in the correct mindset--it's not really even creative. For an author, I can see editing could sound and feel like the opposite of what they want to do.

I thought about if for a while and I decided I don't dread editing because of how I returned to writing every day. I needed time writing without in my life in order to become the serious-minded writer I strived to be. When I was younger, I simply wanted to create stories. I wanted to create worlds and people. And, as is commonly the case, I felt anything I wrote was perfect, that anyone who didn't enjoy my writing just didn't understand it. I considered editing the story a sell-out move. I liked the stories, so who was I trying to please. I felt anything I did to change the story would diminish it.

Nearly two decades without writing every day passed. In that time, I matured in a number of ways. I got married. I became a father. I returned to college. I became a professional graphic artist and web designer. Marriage taught me to grow up. Fatherhood taught me there's a time to play and a time to be serious. College taught me how to complete something I started. Becoming a professional taught me how enjoy my creativity while I earned money. When I returned to writing every day, I found I had the ability to get serious about writing. I had the tools it took to formulate an initial idea and see it through to completion. And, just as importantly, I found I didn't begrudge the editing process.

For me, editing is another necessary process in achieving a finished product. The writing may be more creatively fun; however, the editing is the artist in me, stepping back and looking at the canvas, seeing that a proportion is not quite as I envisioned it and making the necessary correction.

I suppose it all boils down to how you envision the final goal. If your goal is to enjoy writing, then you probably won't enjoy editing. However, if you goal is to complete a finished, salable work, then editing will more likely be as enjoyable a stage as the writing itself.

Some authors I have talked to believe a book can't teach one how to write. Some say you should simply write and have the work critiqued. Some say you should read the work of other authors and study what they have done. Others believe you should get your hands on any and every book that's written. Some even believe that a real author should hold a masters in fine arts.

I subscribe to the believe that if you immerse yourself in Writing (note the capital W) you'll do just fine, hell, more than fine. I believe it is one's deep, honest interest and daily dedication to the craft that will, in the end, make for a better writer. That emersion should probably come in part from all the forms mentioned above. The most important element is the dedication to improvement itself.

If you ask ten authors, you'll get ten different opinions on how to become a better writer. But what works for them may not match your style or even lead you to the correct goal. You have to know yourself and what type of writer you want to be in the end. You need to find your guidance in writers who are working toward the same goal or who are there now. But even then, you have to do it your own way or else you'll just be a poor copy of that other person.

Think about popular music. Each of us has our favorite type of music. Better yet, each of us has an image of what kind of music we would want to perform if we could live the dream. For me, it's a mix of melody, techno and hard rock. Would I get my best advice on how to from Carrie Underwood or Marilyn Manson. Manson, right? But even then, I wouldn't strive to become Manson. Instead, I would model my study after him, using my own experiences and pressing toward a goal of my own definition.

Do the same with your pursuit of writing. I love Neil Gaimon (among others), but I don't want to be spoken of as another Neil Gaimon. I'd rather get a call from him someday in which he tells me he's enjoyed a certain story or a certain something-or-other I added to a story. I think that can only happen if I continue to dive into Writing every day.

So what do I do? Outside of actually putting pen to paper every day without exception, I give myself a lot of wiggle room when it comes to my enrichment. One day, I'll read fiction. Another day, I'll read about the limited omniscient point of view, which, following a luke-warm critique of the beginning of a short story, was recently necessary. I also subscribe to Writers Digest, so some day's I'll read an article before bed. I also have a yahoo page set up that is pretty much nothing but feeds from writing-related sites: blogs, podcasts, traditional websites. Having readily available writing links allows me to keep myself moving forward even while I'm at work. Again, it's the connection to Writing, not the specific activity that I feel is most important.