Last time I talked to you about how my inner editor had escaped, and how I was planning to catch her, put her back in her cage, and make sure I locked it this time. I swear that was my intention. I was going to do it.
I'm not sure what happened, to be honest. I had the cage open, the editor in hand, and I was really trying to get her back in the cage...and then she was gone again. Slipping away as if I had never caught her in the first place.
Here's the thing, though, I've never had a great relationship with my inner editor. Okay, so actually I had a great relationship with her. I just shoved her into her cage and forgot about her. I never checked on her. Hell, I don't even know her name. It was the perfect writing relationship. She never got on my case, so I could just keep writing all of the time without having to worry about it. I was even able to leave those little red lines under the words alone. At least, I was until the end of the word war.
It was fantastic! So, what happened, you ask? Simple. I let her out.
I decided it was high time I did some editing. July was always supposed to be an editing month for me, so when the betas didn't get back to me, I had a very cranky editor bitching at me every day about how this was supposed to be her time.
So I gave in. I pulled out the other novel I happened to have finished (don't give me that look, it's the one I wrote in June...) and started the edits on it. You might have heard me ranting...um...I mean discussing...the fact that there were going to be some major rewriting going on with the novel.
I was actually looking forward to it, which I'm starting to think may have something to do with how often I leave her locked up. Honestly, more than I really should. Even when I'm editing I'm not really consulting her. I tear through it and don't fix most of the problems. It's not a good way to edit, and as a result I've never gotten a novel to the point that I can actually say I was happy with it.
Now, though, my inner editor seems to have had enough. She's battened down the hatches, and she intends to stay for the long haul. Which means, she wants me to edit.
Of course, now all I can think about is the book that I've been editing. My writing has gone absolutely no where in days, despite my decision to hold off on the sequel I was writing in order to finish editing the first book. I stare at the screen for hours instead of doing anything productive, all because I keep trying to put her off.
Maybe I need to give in to her. I write enough during the year that maybe right now I need to get down to editing. I need to focus on this novel that could be the first one I publish (if anyone is willing to take on another werewolf book...). Maybe I shouldn't keep on ignoring her, even when she's yelling in my ear.
I guess it's about time that I actually take my editing seriously. That I finish editing a novel, step back and think, that's pretty damn good. It's time for me to sit down with my inner editor and fix everything that's wrong with this novel
Hmmm...I wonder if my inner editor has a name?
Well, off to tackle the challenge of getting this book up to par!
No comments:
Post a Comment