Ashes and Ugliness
The time has come. I printed out my novel yesterday and had it spiral bound at Kinko’s in preparation for the task of editing. I have not looked at it at all since I finished the rough draft. I’m actually afraid of it. A grown woman afraid of her creation. What can I say, I’m having a Mary Shelley moment.
How do you even edit a book anyway? I’m not sure where or how to start except that it involves me opening the book at some point. I want to curse my friend E~ who got me into this, except if it weren’t for her I never would have written this in the first place.
*looking around for someone to curse*
*finds no one*
So how do I do this? Start big then work down, which is completely against my grain? Would it be plot issues first, then characters, setting and dialogue? This may seem kind of silly, but I am a tweaker. I usually tweak each sentence until I get it right then move on — which works in the smaller formats I usually write in, but probably not so much for a book.
Maybe I’ll start tomorrow.
I’m just amazed that you wrote a novel! “Baby, I’m amazed by you.”
Editing isn’t so bad. Do it just like you said – start big and then work down until your finally just fixing grammar and diction.
Cheers,
Trevas
I am just in awe that you got this far. Of the two NANO novels I’ve done, I haven’t printed out either one, let alone gone back and looked at them for editing. Heck, I don’t think I actually ever finished writing them totally. I mean, I got the word count, but I never wrapped it all up in the end. One isn’t worth the time it would take. The other one might be. Hmm . . . you are an inspiration. Maybe I shall do that.
I imagine this is a daunting task. I can’t believe you can find the time and mental energy to do such things!