Writing, Editing Update

It’s been a while since my last update, so I thought I’d share a little about what’s been going on since Thanksgiving when I finished the first draft of my novel. First, let me say, that editing is a long, torturous experience that feels like plucking my fingernails off one by one… Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad. I am having trouble with it though.

 

(photo credit: www.heatherwebb.net)

Those who have followed the updates about the book since the beginning know that I started writing it in third person and switched to first person about 20K words in. Well, I have decided (with some advice from a writer friend – THANKS COURTNEY!) to just cut all that off and see if I can’t start a little past that. That was hard. There are SEVERAL scenes and moments and just plain necessary information tucked into those words that I have to either put in somewhere else or explain a different way or, well, leave out. (And even as I say that, I know that most of it needed to get chopped…so, yeah, it’s a good move) It’s hard for me to know what is necessary and what is just superfluous. I had to go through a period of questioning and mourning and whatnot. I’m finished with that now. I started editing, in earnest, a week or two ago: meaning, cutting and trimming and just plain making my scenes better one page at a time (by the way, my flash fiction experience has been extremely helpful with this process).

As it stands now, I have approximately 200 pages (after the ones I’ve cut or edited already) left to edit. At one page a day, that’s another six months! Hahaha! I hope I can move faster than that. My goal is to edit three pages a day (for all you non-math-types, that’s one and a half months to finish). Even as I type this, that sounds absurdly pathetic…but I think it’s realistic. Add to that another period of time (month-ish???) to write any scenes that need to be added and edit those, and – worst case scenario – I’ll have a completed draft ready to send to beta readers by May.

While I’m editing this novel, I will continue to write new content for one or several projects I have in my brain. That goal is so ephemeral you can walk right through it, I know. I have SIX ideas for new books competing in my head right now. Yes, six. Six! …And I love all of them! I’m having difficulty making a decision on any of them, or rather, I’m having difficulty saying no to any of them. J So, during this time of getting-to-know-my-editing-brain, I will play around with each of them and see which comes out in the lead. (One is the one I thought I would write for NaNo this past year – the one I can’t categorize – YA of some sort with no fantasy, one is a YA Sci-fi, one is a middle grade fantasy, one is a YA urban-esque fantasy, one is a children’s picture book, and one is a…um…probably a chapter book serial-type-thing?) As you can see, I’m all over the place. They’re just going to duke it out over the next couple of months and see which one comes out on top. …I’ll keep you posted! J