It would be fair to say that a late night working on edits is bad for the old peepers. I was up until one o'clock this morning trying to finish revisions so I could get the book away to Gillie. It really shouldn’t have taken that long but I found reading it so closely threw up lots of little tweaks I wanted to make. Happily I finally sent it to her and crawled into bed. The alarm this morning went off much too soon.It’s a strange experience doing edits. On the one hand it’s easy to get defensive when someone else has read your book and suggested a particular paragraph doesn’t really add anything. An outside reader also notices your trademark peculiarities and quirks much more readily than you can do yourself. For example, one of mine is a love affair with the word ‘grimace’...
On the other hand it doesn’t help to become a raging perfectionist. Yes, there will always be little turns of phrase that seemed great at the time and now fall a bit flat. But at a certain point you have to step away from the manuscript and allow it to be prised from your sweaty paws. If you can’t take that leap of faith you’ll become one of those writers with ten unfinished novels lying in a drawer. Been there, got the t-shirt!
Reading a book is such a subjective experience. What I’m realising is that two people can read the same passage and have completely different views. It’s good to listen to some opinions you trust –but in the end you have to go with your gut.
Oh - and top tip: if you click on the picture link it will take you to a helpful page all about how to cover those black circles after a late writing session. When I think of my appearance this morning... It’s enough to make a girl grimace…!
7 comments:
As a literature student (doing linguistics modules, too, ew), I often find I'm torn when reading between what 'works' in terms of what I can use to analyse, and what 'works' in terms of what I just enjoy reading. So I'm definitely aware of how things can be read differently, and how subjective the entire process is - I have different ways of reading depending on whether I'm Sophie, the casual reader or Sophie, the Eng Lit student.
I'm really enjoying reading your posts, by the way - I just always forget to comment! I hope you're enjoying the whole publishing process as much as I am from this end. :)
That's great you got so much done. Hopefully, you are treating yourself to something delightful tonight.
I'm sure these tweaks are the hardest..but you're almost there.
First, thank you for your thoughtful comment on my post about my father. This is a very rough time. Second, I have read several of your posts. Congrats on your novel. It sounds like this are progressing very well. Look forward to reading more about it as you go through "the process."
I've kind of got that same look going on today! (And, yes, I've blogged about it, too). Good job, though, on muddling through the editing process. I'm sure it would be very hard to be objective about your own "baby". Go girl!
I just stumbled across your blog and just wanted to tell you that I really admire what you're doing. Writing a book is something that I can't even imagine myself ever being able to do! You are incredible for being able to accomplish that. Good luck to you, I hope everything works out in your behalf!
Thanks for all the good wishes guys! Let's hope the hard work leads somewhere... :-)
Debbie x
Yep, the more you edit your work, the more frustrated you will become. You will always, ALWAYS, want to change a paragraph, a phrase, even a word. If you give in to that impulse, like you said yourself, you will never submit your work for publication. You have to realize that you are not perfect...and the same goes for your agent, editor, and publisher.
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