WOULD YOU READ even your favourite book five times or more? I know I wouldn’t. But that’s what I’ve done already with ‘thriller’ Down To Earth, and anyone who’s been through the process knows how sickening it gets when you’re editing seeing the same lines over and over, in your own private hell of a Groundhog Day without being blessed by the presence of Bill Murray who hopefully hasn’t sexually assaulted anyone because ‘idols’ are falling fast in Hollywood. I’m finally on to a ‘clean’ read through with most mistakes and grammaticals sorted out…I can’t wait to read it all again… /puke
This post is more of a self indulging whinge than anything constructive… I’m trying to think of any advice I can pass on… One thing I will say is that when editing for grammatical issues try and zone in on that alone and forget story/plot/characters/dialogue and all the rest, become the greatest grammar Nazi you can be.
You’ll pick up spelling mistakes and minor things all the way through anyway, so once they’re sorted you’ve got the more important details of plot, chronology etc and it’s a white gloves and apron forensic analysis to weed out things that don’t make sense with as little bloodshed as possible. I got REALLY bored of the same old story at this stage and genuinely couldn’t give a fuck at points because the greatest enemy is the fact you know from the very start what happens and how it all unfolds. It feels like I finished it ages ago, because in my mind it was, but then reality knocked and said, yeah but not in this dimension! – and mentally when that happens it’s hard to motivate oneself. But push on you must, an unread story is one of the saddest things I can imagine.
After five edits I’m struggling to push myself to actually read through DTE…again. But at least I know the major issues and edits have been done and I can try as much as anyone can to read their own manuscript objectively. SPOILER ALERT: I wrote the damned thing…
It really sucks the life out of reading when you know what’s coming. Once I’m done with this read and tweak thankfully I have a few people willing to read it which will be a blessing, I can pass this curse on to them 🙂 And then have to edit again! Yay…
One last thing, I’ve mentioned this before, if you can, try and finish a book/story in as short a time frame as possible because the story becomes less cohesive and fractures over time, like radioactive decay for words. The characters and events, the story world, are more engaging and present when you’re focused on the writing, but all that fades quite quick, especially the spark of creativity. You no longer start having random ideas throughout the days of how X could be changed, or a character improved, dialogue, and so on.
LionAroundWriting 
Good luck…and don’t puke all over your writing. 😉
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It happens lol
Worse when its on screen not on paper…
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I just read a post by stevie (https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/am-i-a-writer-or-an-author/comment-page-1/#comment-11531) and your post kind of reminded me of his. Wishing you the best of luck in all your endeavors!
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Appreciate the linkage.
And cheers, I’ll need all of the luck 🙂
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No worries! hahahah
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You have just made me relive my own personal nightmare!!! I’ve lost count of the reads and re-reads of Sweeter Than Wine. But it’s out there now and I’ll have to take whatever I get. You will too!
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Sorry for the flashbacks lol.
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Patient and focused at the same time. And he hard part is editing process. Normally i’d find some grammar Nazi to read my work. Luckily it happens to be my wife. Love her to death but she is one of the biggest ones out there. Though I have to admit, her careful eye has gotten me some good grades in college.
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That’s mighty handy 🙂
I’ve sorted most of the grammatical stuff out, that’s fairly easy if a little tedious, making sure the story makes sense and hangs together, dialogue and pacing is engaging is what I’m on to now.
So tough to gauge it as the creator whos also read it so many times…but gotta be done 😐
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[ Applause ]
Cos, as you said – you wrote the damned thing! Hats off to you, sir! 🙂
Only a bit more pain to go…
… and then you can fret about whether people like it. If they do, Hurrah! If they don’t, Meh, fuck ’em.
😀
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I like your attitude.
then you spend the real energy editing and loathing the creation lol
It’s one of those weird things until you do it you don’t realise or maybe its naive hope – that writing it is the simple part
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I feel your pain… Just finished my latest round and now on to beta reading. And then more edits.
The self afflicted torture of writing 🙂
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It really isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
There’s a good reason no one wrote novels on tablets…lol
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Hey, I re-read my own three novels endlessly. Dozens of times probably. Yeah, it’s very labor intensive.
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And people think writing is romantic or whatever haha.
It’s more work than I realised but I’ll get there eventually.
And judging by your readings I’ve got about…5 more read throughs to go lol
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Good luck. And if you were expecting to obtain any financial remuneration for your fine efforts, well…….
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Thanks. Haha, I gave up on that naive notion some time ago luckily.
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Good. I didn’t want to be the one to break your heart.
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