Editing the Novel of DOOM

Where I Am: spread all over the dining room table (well, my laptop, manuscript, and other papers - not me personally)

What I'm Listening To: silence and a constant inner monologue that goes something like, "Erk. Oh, seriously? Geez..."



Editing. Ugh. I'm sure I don't have any new things to add to the litany of whining that generally makes up any conversation between writers on the subject of editing. Suffice to say, I don't like it either.

What does interest me is the totally different perspective I have on a scene that I wrote lo, these many months ago, now that I've had some time to separate myself from it. Sometimes, I think, "Eh, doesn't stink, but it's a little clunky." Other times, I think, "Okay. I'll buy that." There are even a few rare and wonderful moments when I read a few lines and just grin from ear to ear. "YES!" Right now, I'm grappling with a scene that just makes me cringe. I don't know what in the world I was thinking when I wrote it. It's bad. BAD, I tell you. It's like every new author boo-boo ever known all in the span of about three paragraphs. Whoa.

I suppose I should rejoice that I can recognize the problems now. I've come a long way, baby. Really, I am pleased about that part. But, oh my goodness, rewriting that section is daunting. It's that whole fragile self-confidence thing again.

"If it was that terrible then and you didn't see it, what terrible thing are you doing now that you still don't see?"

Thank goodness I have several good friends waiting in the wings to critique this thing for me. Good friends who will tell me the truth, even if it is embarrassing for all concerned.

Now, back to work.

Whoa. Time Vortex, maybe?

Where I Am: at home in my favorite chair

What I'm Listening To: Blessed Silence



Amazing. It's amazing to me the way time passes. Someday, I'm going to unravel the mysteries of how it is that time, which I know to be relative (thank you, Dr. Einstein), doesn't seem to relate to me. Harumph.

What this means is, I don't know where it went. Time marched on, apparently right past me, and here we are on the last day of April and I honestly don't know how it all happened. Whoof.

Anyway...

I do have an excuse for being sort of lost. I have completed the draft of If It Walks Like a Duck and I am hugely excited about this. WOO! I'm currently working on editing which is daunting but also gratifying. It feels good to be cleaning up the messy parts and turning convoluted margin notes into clean text. But I am trying to keep things in perspective. I have a long way to go.

Ever mindful of the future, I've been encouraging myself with ideas of Ellen Keely's next adventure. See, I'm really hoping that by the time people finish reading about Ellen's first foray into the world of mystery, they will be as eager as I am to find out what she will do next. To that end, while my conscious mind is working through knotty problems in the Duck draft, my subsconcious is having a bit of fun with early details of what it has, for the moment, named Dead In Dog Years, the second installment of the Ellen Keely mysteries.

Exciting, no?

I'd love to stay and chat, but I have some editing I'm eager to get done today. Let's meet again soon. :P