Another Post About Editing

OK, so by now you've read (or maybe you haven't at which point you might want to get a point of reference) my previous post about editing and know pretty much how I feel about it.

Well, recently, I've beefed up my editing schedule to about two hours a day at least five days a week (more on Monday's but we'll get to that in a bit).  At this rate, I should be done editing and have a second draft finished in about two weeks.

So, that's led me to another rant on my feelings about editing or what it's done to me as a writer.  I do, however, feel the need to qualify this by describing my feelings of inadequacy when I turn on my social media tools (Twitter and Facebook) and read that all the other authors I truly admire are pounding through the writing/editing process with much more apparent ease.  I know, I know.  They've all had much more experience with this sort of thing.  They've all done this before.  They've all got deals or made tons of money doing it.  This is my first time.  I got it.  It still doesn't make me feel much better.

*Muppet-Flailing while shouting in my Lois the senior-citizen-chain-smoking-vespa-riding Assassin voice*  "I'm a deeeee-VAAAAAAA".

Now that THAT is out of my system... moving on.

To me, going through this process is a lot like going through therapy.  There are days where I get done with an editing session and am all excited and think, "YES, this book is gonna be AWESOME!!!!!".   I feel good about my work, my choice to write, and my life.

Then there are days where I get done, feel like the dried up dirt that cakes sidewalks after the puddle has dried up, and think, "This sucks... why am I even doing this?".

It is an emotional roller coaster, at least for me.

Fortunately for me, as with therapy, I've got a great support system.  Aside from my awesome wife, I also have a great (and steadily growing, feel free to join us) group of friends who meet up with me on Monday nights for a few hours to communally get work done on whatever personal projects we all have.  Plus, they have to put up with me chuckling a LOT to myself while I'm editing and then suffer through me reading aloud to them.

So, ultimately, my affair with editing is like an affair with a counselor.  Some good, some bad, always dramatic and when it's over... it's OVER...

...until the next book.  Then the process starts all over again.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support.

~Stephan

The Long-Awaited "Editing" Update

OK, so for the record:  I hate editing.

-Also-

For the record:  I love editing...

...but mostly I hate it, and let me tell you why.  Of course, if you're not interested, you could stop reading right here, but why stop, you may find something amusing (or at least entertaining).  If you don't I encourage you to check out Youtube for that video of the animatronic dinosaur scaring that little kid.

Anyroad, here's why I love editing (since I'm sort of an optimist, we'll go with the good news first):

It helps me find my voice.  More importantly, it helps me actualize my voice so that you, the reader, can understand it and get a clear idea of what that voice is like (when you eventually pick up a copy of my best seller).

It also helps expand my vocabulary.  Sure, I love words like bellicose and defenestration, but those are only two words.  Hard to fill a sixty thousand word novel with those two words over and over again (though I've already done it and made a movie about it... in my head... it stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, The Rock, Triple-H, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Samuel L. Jackson) and taking the time to edit allows me to utilize one of the best tools I've found for writing:  Thesaurus.com (though it's currently tied with Wordhippo.com).

Now, because I like to rant, sometimes, here's why I hate editing (and I can already hear Chuck Wendig's voice in the back of my head bellowing, "Quite yer *expletive deleted* whining you *expletive deleted* pansy.  Put yer *expletive deleted* big boy pants on and *expletive deleted* write!"):

It's slow.  I put all that effort into getting the words onto paper.  Sure, it was writing for quantity and sure there were parts where I put "<insert really cool fight scene here>", but in comparison to spending an hour to pound out a few thousand words.  Here I spend an hour and I've gotten MAYBE three pages done... out of one hundred and seventy three.  Now, with maintaining a healthy, happy relationship with my awesome wife,  helping her with two home-based companies, maintaining a household (laundry, dishes, lunches, breakfasts, lawn care, home repairs, etc...), child care for a one-and-a-half year old and an eight year old, time devoted to editing is very limited (Yup, there it is, Chuck's voice again cursing at me).  I felt way more accomplished when I could say I got a few thousand words out.  I'll get over it (and myself, and my ego yelling at me in Chuck Wendig's voice).

It's hard to see what I've written converted into something that isn't what I wrote:  like when I change tenses, point of view, etc...  I wrote it and when I re-read it, it sounded fine... Now I change the tense and the point of view and it sounds a bit clunky... well, at least to me, but I'm overly critical... just ask the other theatre majors from my Theatre Criticism class... none of them wanted me to come see their shows... ever.

It's slow.  Yeah, I know I mentioned this already, but it's really important to me, so you know, repetition makes things stick and all that.

Anyroad, that's really all I have to say about my love/hate relationship with editing.  I'm sure I'll get over myself, but not before I can whine just a bit more (and not before I can experience defenestration first hand by my ego/Chuck Wendig voice, at least metaphorically).  :)

As always, thanks for your support and if you got all the way down here, thanks for reading!

~Stephan

P.S. Chuck, if you actually read this blog entry, I love you man, keep up the awesome work... you're a *expletive deleted* inspiration!  :)