It’s a teenie, tiny, I’m between things on my to-do list
and I really should be doing other work right now, sort of update this time.
After my recent editing-inspired-meltdown, it seemed like it would be worth checking
in with anyone reading to assure them that a) I am perfectly fine and b) I have
been through the first and second rounds of feedback provided by my
supervisors, and everything is okay. I mean, I’ll be working 12 – 18 hour days
forever, but apart from that everything is definitely okay.
I have a surprisingly manageable shopping list in terms of
what needs to be addressed and edited in the second draft of my book/creative
element and – if I’m being brutally honest with myself – as yet no one has
given me feedback that I haven’t agreed with on some level. There are pacing
issues galore and there are about a thousand missed opportunities for making
the book richer – in terms of plot and character – than it currently stands.
The critic has taken over now – as if the critic operates
as an entirely separate entity inside my writer’s brain – and frankly told the
writer, ‘You can do better than this, you know?’
‘Yes, I know,’ said the writer.
And here we are.
The baby steps forward that I’ll be taking over the coming
weeks will be to draw up a timeline of my book, as it stands, and then draw up
a timeline of my book as I want it to stand. The first steps to fixing a
problem are identifying chiefly that a problem exists, and then identifying
specifically what the problem actually is – perhaps a slight bastardisation of
an old adage, but it certainly works this way when it comes to editing a book.
With that said, if anyone needs me then I’ll be hiding
under sheets of A3 paper surrounded by highlighters and two heavily annotated
copies of my manuscript – probably trying to work out which piece of action
belongs to which chapter, and which chapter belongs in the bin.
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