Tuesday 19 March 2013

NaNo: First Edit: Complete. Or Not?

Image: www.allclassicbooks.com

Editing my book took me much longer than I thought it would. Sure, I had a little bout of flu that killed my workflow for five entire days, but even if I forget about that, it's taking me longer than I thought. My novel has also grown quite a bit. I had 76,760 words when I finished writing my NaNo project, and now it's grown to 89,171 words.

And even though I've reached the end, I now have a few things I want to try and do. I'm just not sure when, since I must must must get back to my translation  first. Want to know what I was happy or unhappy with? I'll tell you...

First of all, I think it's only fair to say that I was and still am quite proud of myself. I've left the book untouched and unseen for three entire months, and it managed to suck me right back into the world I had created in my head. The school halls, the courtyard, the walk from school to Feather's house, it was all still in my head like places I had actually visited. Which I haven't.

Mostly my editing consisted of making a few scenes better, less wordy. Which is an accomplishment, considering I've made it tigher by adding 13,000 words...

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Saturday 2 March 2013

NaNo: Editing, Round One

Image: www.editors.ca

I've finally managed to pick myself up and face the music called 'editing'. Which means I'm reading through my "book", my NaNoWriMo project from last November.

After all those authors complaining about editing on social media, I was getting cold feet, but it's surprisingly okay. It's not annoying at all, I just make changes wherever I find they are necessary, as I walk through the same halls and talk to the same people I met (and created) last November. I would almost call it a fun thing to do.

The problem is keeping my eyes open after a night of four hours sleep with a ten minute break in between and only a bit of dozing before and after. There's only so much coffee anyone should drink in one day. And Senseo just isn't cut out for this situation - three gulps and it's gone.

Last post I mentioned that I was a little bit scared to finally open my document again and look at it with new eyes after three months. What if the rush of writing made it all seem so much better than it was? What if it was only interesting and entertaining as a challenge?

To read the rest of this post, please follow this LINK.