Editor’s block

I don’t believe in writer’s block. Sure, I’ve written myself in many a corner and had to find a way out again. I’ve also had moments when I would have preferred to wash the dishes to writing. I believe, however, that you can only get over these things by writing.

I am trying to apply this approach to editing, too. It does not work as well, though. When I don’t want to write, I tell myself that I only have to write a few words. I just take it one sentence at a time, or, if I am having a really bad day, even just one word at a time.

It is no coincidence that I got a bit blocked. I am at a point where I have to make some major decisions, and so far I haven’t found one I am happy with. Editing one word at a time is nowhere near enough here, some serious re-writes are in order.

Since I don’t believe in writer’s block, I have decided that I’m experiencing editor’s block. It’s not primarily the re-writing that is the problem, but the idea that I want to get this novel polished in as little rounds of editing as possible.

I probably have to take the pressure off myself and accept that the re-written parts will need another round of editing some time later. I don’t want this block to turn into a solid brick will which will separate me forever from my red pen.

Notes on editing (2)

No. 13 of Kerouac’s 30 Essentials for Prose is: Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition.

I seem to have taken this in whole-heartedly. Punctuation especially is rather experimental at times. Which does not make editing easier. I must make a note to remind myself to use commas even when I’m tired.

Notes on editing (1)

Turns out it is a lot easier to edit a novel that was planned before writing. My NaNo2007 novel was hardly planned at all, and it shows. There are huge gaps in the story, and some of the characters lack depth – they are shadows of real people, and the sun is going down on them.

You will always end up introducing characters to your story you never thought about before you actually started writing. I think it’s a little problematic when there are to many of them, though. A good story is character-driven in my opinion, and you need strong characters for that. Some of my key characters are much to weak to move the story forward at this point.

The first lesson I learned from the editing adventure: plan NaNo2008 novel to make editing a little less painful.

Editing the monster

I am good at producing first drafts. I am not quite as good at editing.

I went away over the bank holiday weekend, and I only started editing my novel on Tuesday. One thing has become obvious: it’s impossible to edit a 266-novel without a print-out of it – at least for me.

I need a hardcopy so I can go wild with the red pen.

NaNoEdMo starts on Saturday

I can’t believe how quickly time flies. It’s March 1 on Saturday, which means NaNoEdMo has as good as begun.

NaNoEdMo is a good thing for people who need a challenge to get on with the editing. While I love that kind of pressure during NaNoWriMo, I have never had much luck with NaNoEdMo. I don’t enjoy editing, but when I get down to business, I want to do a good job. I don’t want to go through endless round of editing what I edited. I guess that’s why I dropped out of the challenge within the first week whenever I decided to do it.

This year, I’m doing something else. I’m not going to pretend I’ll make it this year. Does my 2007 novel need editing? It sure does, and I will edit it. But on my own terms, and in my own time.

April Fools: Day 29

So I’m not even done with editing last year’s oeuvre and my mind already suggests a new project for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

I started planning July-ish last year, and I guess that’s ok. Planning a novel takes a while – it certainly takes longer than writing it when you are determined to write it. But April? That’ a little early. Could be due to the fact that the weather in Germany has skipped spring and gone straight to summer, though.

The new idea is the sequel to the novel I am editing. So maybe it’s not such a surprise that I came up with it now. This idea would answer the question what I’ll do with the sub-plot that needs to be cut entirely. It is much to big for a sub-plot, I could make a few changes and turn it into the sequel’s main plot easily.

April Fools: Day 1

In March, aka NaNoEdMo, I edited 24 pages of my manuscript. That leaves me with exactly 200 pages to edit this month – or an average of 6,7 pages a day. Plus 10k of new words for the scenes that need fleshing out.

Today I edited 11 pages and wrote about 200 words. I haven’t typed the additions in yet, so I don’t know how many words I added exactly. I have yet to come across a scene that needs major rewrites, but I know I will once I’m through with the first third of the novel.

Not too bad a start, though.

Ready

Only a little over 8.5 hours until the April Fools challenge begins. Better get into the editing spirit, then.

My goal is to write 10k and, more importantly, finish editing my NaNo project.

Quote for September 18, 2006

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”

James Michener

I wish I could say, me too! Truth is, though, that I’m a terrible rewriter. I really need to work on my manuscript revision skills. I plan to edit my NaNo2005 novel in December, you know.

What to do with that first draft

So, writing the first draft may have seemed hard work. But when you’ve done it, you’ll find out that the real work is just about to begin: you have to revise that masterpiece of yours. Here’s what Ernest Hemingway said about the first draft: “All that matters is that you finish it.”

Holly Lisle’s method of novel revision is something I really should try (she has another version online, too, plus lots of other free articles on many aspects of writing). This sounds like the kind of method that could actually work for me. So far, I’ve never revised any of my novel drafts to the point where I’m happy with the thing.

Does I work? Well, it works for Holly Lisle. And Jay Penney used Holly’s method and blogged his revision progress here.