Forging Ever Onward » edit

In Other News, the Edit is Done

KD — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:29:26 +0000

Yes, that one. That book I’ve been banging my head on for almost two months? Done. That was the loud squeeing noise you may have heard a few nights ago.

I won’t deny it’s been rough. Anyone who’s checked in here in the past month knows that. But…it’s really awesome now. I’m so utterly thrilled with this book. I wish epic fantasy/gay romance were more widely read, ’cause I want to share it with eeeeeeeeeeveryone.

Also I want to go on to the next book, even though I know I’m worn to the edge and in serious need of recharge time.

So. Reading. Reconnecting. Recharging. FANFIC WRITING, zomg, I have so many stories STILL unfinished and it’s been years…

Here Endeth the Slog

KD — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:43:36 +0000

I actually finished the slog last night, but I was too exhausted to exult.

I’m not in much better shape now. But. The slog is done. The first book of Hiro is edited, sorta. I’ve made the changes on paper. Now I have to make the changes in the file. It will change more as I do that, of course, but the bulk of the editing is done.

Whoohoo?

There’s a Song about Editing

KD — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:22:35 +0000

There’s a saying, and now a country song, that goes “If you’re going through hell, keep on going.”

Yes, I know I said I enjoy editing. And I do–most of the time. But there’s a reason Holly Lisle calls this part the “manuscript slog.”

[Disclaimer--this may not actually be the way editing goes for you. But it's the way it goes for me, and others I've talked to, so I'm going with second person plural. If it doesn't apply to you, I hope there's still something of use here, even if it's just the sense that other writers have their problems too. Heaven knows we all have our difficulties.]

In the beginning, editing sucks. OMG, how it sucks, like a vacuum, like a black hole, it sucks so majorly hardcore you’d rather clean the grout or separate all the coffee filters than edit, it sucks like THAT. It’s a mess, it’s all a horrid mess, why did you write that, and what did you mean by this, and ZOMG, why does this character even exist? And the really big question, how on earth or beyond it did you ever for one moment think that you, stupid hack that you are, could actually write?

But it gets better. You flail a lot, and fix a few things, flail a little more, fix a few more things, and before too long (but not soon enough!) you are doing more fixing than flailing and you are trudging onward, slow but steady, unbowed. You start to think you’re going to do this. You’ve found a few gems, and you’ve enhanced their setting, cut away some deadwood, added subtlety and humor and integrated a bit of description in a marvelous way, and you think you’re going to make it.

Your MS is waiting for that, of course. Just waiting for that heady sense of accomplishment so it can flatten you but good.

Sometimes you’ll hit it as your novel gathers itself for a smashing ending. Other times you’ll still be in the muddle of the middle, and it will hit you.

This time for me it was a scene, a beloved scene, that introduced a very important, heavily-foreshadowed character–but did absolutely nothing else. No story advancement. No conflict. Nothing to keep anyone reading who wasn’t charmed (as I most certainly was) by this wonderful new character. I hit that scene last Sunday, and knocked off for the day because I had no idea what to do with it, and I already had three hours of editing in. Maybe overnight my muses would tell me what to do with it.

Monday brought some bad news that really shook my world. No editing was achieved. Tuesday the same thing. Wednesday I tried. I claimed one hundred minutes, and most of that was flailing. But if I flail with red pen in hand, marking up my MS and marking up my marks and reprinting and trying again and yet again, that counts.

Thursday I claimed ten minutes. Friday, twenty.

Yesterday, Saturday, I claimed 240. The scene is still not fixed, but I think I see how now, and that came about by my working on it Friday and Saturday night, scribbling notes by the stage-lights as I waited to go on at Valley of the Moon.

If you’re going through hell, keep on going.

And never, ever, write a scene with no conflict. You’ll hate yourself later. I am so not kidding.

Where I Should Be

KD — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:20:54 +0000

I’m right about where I should be on EdMo hours (thirty-two, IIRC), way behind where I wanted to be on manuscipt, and working feverishly to remedy that.

The fact that I now have three parts in a play that opens next week is hindering that.

Guess why blogging isn’t a priority?

But I’m having fun, so all is well.

I…made an icon?

KD — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:02:19 +0000

Tonight I made an icon. I like it lots. I don’t usually choose to write on my person’s face, but I felt it fit this one. And the second line–I was looking for a font that looked like a scream, but this one actually works better. I ended up walking the line between art *snerks at idea of self as artist* and understanding, because I wanted to make the color just a shade away from his face–so nearly impossible to read. White worked, though, and the red background to the letters adds a touch of scream to it, I think.

My, don’t I sound all pretentious or something?

The person is Kuchiki Byakuya, from Kubo Tite’s marvelous Bleach. I don’t know if this is Kubo-san’s art, or fanart. I found it unattributed on Photobucket, and it demanded to be iconed.

AUGHMo progresses. I’m on…page five? Something like that.