Oh, the Editing Process!

Ah! The writing process! As writers, we go through highs and lows when writing. We LOVE new ideas. We love the first days of working on something new. But after months of work, the revisions start. It’s when writers find major plot holes and issues. It’s when we start to have a love-hate relationship with the manuscript.

The past week, I’ve been rather cranky as I’ve gone over what I’ve written. I do it every time. I find something that upsets the balance of the book and am forced to go back and fix it.

While all my writer buds are happily blasting through thousands of words a day in NaNo, I’m pouring over chapters and ripping stuff apart and fixing things. This is how I felt about the current work in process last week – and probably how my characters felt about me:

That’s okay. Trust me, every writer does this. Yup. I can see the writers in the crowd nodding enthusiastically. With every novel, this love-hate relationship is part of the process.

And then, something else happens. We break through. Today is that day for me. Today, things are going well and I feel like I’m making headway. WHOO HOO!

While the book is not in any way, shape or form ready for eyes other than my own, since at this point I’ve made significant changes for the better, it’s getting there. I don’t feel like I’m slogging through a swamp anymore (But ask me again next week).

Weeding out the crud and cruft, cleaning up chapters  today feels a bit more like this:

Yeah. Like I said. It’s not for anyone else’s eyes right now, but I’m very enthusiastic.

All this is probably more of an insight on how my caffeine-induced brain works than you wanted to know, right? Sorry for the years of therapy you’ll obviously need now.

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