Seeking Editing Advice

[adelynne]

So. There has been a recent "meme" of sorts about the all the cool people's blogs about "how to write a novel." (In case you don't read, it can be found here, here, here, here, and here, at the very least and in the order I saw them.) And really, that's great.

I've already (technically) written a novel, though. And while I don't think I'm cool enough to share the process, I will say that my brain did conjure something very similar to the spreadsheet idea as a cookie for me (it was a notepad file, started off by keeping wordcount, and then evolved to keeping the names of the chapters - Glamour's not the sort of book where I need to keep track of the POV). In any case, I have a fairly "set" method for writing novels that is differently-evolved from my method of writing short stories or essays, and I'm pretty happy with it. It works for me.

What I don't have is a way to actually get myself to look at the book again. I can think about it, make a list of all the things that are broken and need to be fixed - even, on occasion, how I can fix them, but I can't bring myself to open that bloody file labelled "Glamour Draft 2.doc" and get to work. I dread it. I'm absolutely sure it'll be horrible, and I'll hate it and won't stand to even edit it and will destroy my own creation in a blaze of madness.

Rationally, I know it's not that bad. I know where it's broken, but I also know where the strong points are. It is fixable, but I actually need to be willing to fix it. I'm willing to bet that it'd be nice work if I could get it. And if you can get it, please won't you tell me how?

Comments

[wayzgoose.livejournal.com]

I share the frustration. Partly, I have limited creative time. I work full-time, have a full-time family, and am getting ready to start schooling for a certificate class (in November, no less!). The precious time I have for writing is used in creating new stuff, not revisiting the stuff I already got out of my head.

My first novel (back in the 70s) went through 13 drafts in four years. I have every draft with all it's markup and edits, thinking when I did it that someday when I was a famous writer a PhD student would be thrilled to look at all the drafts and analyze my working process. Talk about the conceit! The 14th draft, which actually had promise, I didn't finish. I wrote two sequels to that novel during the same time that I was editing it. Then real-life closed in and I started dealing with the issues of putting food on the table and making mortgage payments. I started re-writing last year's Nano with a radical revision. It all went well until about two chapters from the end. At that point I was simply stuck on how to revise my ending, and it has been sitting there two chapters away from a submission for six months while I planned this year's. If you find a way to get you into editing those that doesn't require retirement, please let me know. But then... retirement is only a few years away!

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

The really sad thing is I can't seem to write when I do have free time. I left work expecting that I'd take the two months to write, but wound up doing everything else under the sun instead. Very restful, not at all what I actually wanted.

It's not about the time for me - it's totally about the inclination. I expect to hate my work, so I'd rather not face it. For writing, and editing I like, I make time - it keeps me sane in the workplace, because one simply can't do science all day day in and day out - it will pour out of your ears. There's always more work. I, at least, need to step away and express myself in other means for a bit.

It's good that you kept those notes - it'll help you understand your process in the future.