Hey everyone!
It’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me on the editing front. For about three weeks, I was hitting it hard. My friend Vanessa needed to study for her nursing exam that is coming up. We agreed to help each other out by going to Starbucks daily after work. She would sit with her books and study and I would sit and start editing my manuscript. So, that is what we did. Once I started, I wanted to kick myself for waiting so long to get started. About a week and a half in, I wanted to claw my eyes out.
Writing is hard. EDITING? Holy Macro, Batman! My brain. My poor brain. Editing is not fun, my friends. Especially when you need to learn to filter the process in your brain. What do I mean by that? Well, editing is not a one step process. Editing will require multiple forms of attack before it’s done. At the moment, I’m just going through the line by line edits the editor left me in the manuscript. As I go through those and make official decisions on what to change, I’m also leaving notes for later. There is so much I am seeing that will need some rewrites. I have to try not to get ahead of myself and just focus on this first step. But, of course, the extremist that I am, I’m overthinking things way ahead of when I should even be entertaining them.
Editing in a public place with Vane was so that we don’t get too sidetracked and stay focused.
For the most part we did really well. Some days…well, some days our brains were fried. Coincidentally, those moments happened simultaneously then we turned into 10 year olds giggling and passing notes in class.
Vanessa would start the drawings and then I was to morph and finish them. These were just some of the results. We collected a pretty large pile of random and some, inappropriate notes in those three weeks.
Our coffee sleeves were victims of our delirious moments.
Recently, things slowed down in that department due to other ‘life things’ coming into play. For one, I got a new job teaching at a Paint and Party studio.
Confession Time:
The other big reason editing has been placed on pause is because of the overthinking part. It can be a bit overwhelming, going over an entire manuscript. Not going to lie, part of me started wondering if I should put it aside and write something else that excites me at the moment. Another part of me feels like it’s cowardly and I need to just stick to it and give my characters a chance here. I also finished drafting this story two years ago so I’m seeing the differences in my writing since then. Luckily, my writing has improved since then. Not luckily, I’m wanting to tear the MS apart and make it so much better. That’s a good thing, I know. Only, it’s 458 pages currently of story. And it’s not a contemporary, it’s a dystopian/post-apocalyptic story which means, world-building and other fun, complicated details that need to be worked out just right. It’s why I’m contemplating busting out a contemporary story I’ve had in my ‘idea pile’ just to get my juices flowing again. We shall see.
I’ll keep you all updated on how things go. I’m trying to tell myself, “Imagine you had an agent and deadline. Start building that “work ethic” as a writer now. Don’t wait till later when it finally becomes a reality.”
How is everyone’s writing coming along?
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