Today I’m in a funk.
Editing The Waste is much harder than I thought it would be. I sit down to work, but get distracted. I really want to edit it, but my actions say otherwise. I have no idea where the resistance is coming from. I’ve re-read the entire thing, so it’s not like I’m afraid to see what I wrote (that’s happened in the past). I’ve got the time and energy to do the work. I just don’t.
My brain is a mystery to me sometimes.
I wonder if it would help to tell myself ‘it’s only the second draft and it’s OK to suck’ .
I’m frustrated because I feel like my path to becoming a published novelist has halted in its tracks and I’m wasting all this time not working when I’ve got a lot I want to do this year.
I don’t want to put it aside for a while because I think I’ll never get back to it and I won’t get the practice editing a novel that I need. If I don’t edit this one, I won’t show it to anyone so I won’t get the critiques I need and I won’t get the editing practice I need. I already know I can write a first draft – what I need to learn is how to take it from first draft to second and third draft and make each one better.
Not editing will make sure I never get there.
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Editing is one the hardest, most tedious, thankless tasks that an aspiring writer will ever have to do; yet it is a necessary evil, and makes the writing shine in the end. Hope this inspires!
Thanks, Chris!
What really helped is I just did a beta read for another author and I was immensely encouraged to see that his work wasn’t perfect, either.
Today I’m back to editing – hope to be done with this pass in a week!
Hi Lisa. I think you’re amazing for having written a novel in the circumstances you describe. I don’t think I could have done that when my kids were young. Although I did paint for hours at a time.
I’m hoping I will get the time, and have the motivation and strength to write as many hours a day as I painted.
So far, i’ve only written short stories, but i’m learning how to write with these.
The idea of a novel intimidates me, because it’s so long. There are so many details and threads to keep track of. I don’t know how to write a novel. But I’m going to learn by doing.
My goal lately has been a short story a week, mainly through terribleminds.com challenges.
I’m entered for NaNoWriMo, and I have no idea what i’m going to do. I may end up with total stream of consciousness and no story.
If I fail this year, I’ll keep writing and try again next year.
They say you only fail when you stop trying.
I hope we connect on twitter.
: )
Louise
And yes, if you’ve read your novel through, all you have to do is start at the beginning, and tighten the sentences. You may find you can combine three sentences into one neater more powerful sentence. Go page by page from beginning to end.
Second draft can suck too.
With my stories, I go over them from start to finish at least seven times.
First I go from beginning to end, then I go from end to beginning, ie backwards.
Clean up the sentences and punctuation, read it out loud to yourself to check the rhythm, especially of the dialogue, look for places where you can replace a blah verb with a more powerful one, and keep going over it to correct typos.
If you’re a methodical disciplined person, give yourself a page goal per day.
Good luck to us both!
Hi Louise – thanks for your comments. I’ve put this book aside for now and I’ve written another that I’m hip deep in revising. It helps that I have a writing partner, because I know she’s waiting for more chapters.
Good luck with NaNoWriMo this year – and if you don’t finish by the end of November, just keep working in December.
I have not plot yet for my Nano novel and at this rate, I’m not sure I’ll have one before I start. It will all work out in the end, I hope!
Lisa