Waterfall!

First of all, sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Second of all, look at that picture! It's been warm recently, and then just last night it snowed. This being Kansas, it melted again today, making our creek run and the waterfall with it.
NaNoEdMo has... Failed. I had all sorts of doubts about my story, and I've sent it to a few friends to get opinions on it. So far, nothing back. I think it's gotten close to impossible for me to get the hours now. I guess I have to fail the first year with anything starting with "National Novel." Oh well. I feel like I want to start over again. But that could always be me just avoiding commitment. And now I think I'm repeating myself from posts I've already written... Oh well. I'm just sitting here enjoying the sound of that waterfall in my awesome treehouse my dad built me...

Thoughts in the Middle of Editing

I've been ever so slowly line-editing CG, but all of a sudden yesterday it struck me that the beginning just needed plain rewriting. And the next thought is that I should just rewrite the whole stinking thing and turn it into a series, 'cause all of the stuff I can imagine putting in there would make it way too long for a single book. But I'm thinking I really want to just trash at least the beginning and restart. If I were to do that, I would probably set this aside and really worldbuild and carefully and fully plot the thing out. If I'm going to rewrite the thing I want to do it right. But the thing is, I was planning on line-editing and then coming back when I was a better writer (I'm hoping I'll get better) with maybe a little perspective and rewrite it then. But... now I'm wanting to rewrite it now. Which I don't know if I should do it or not.

Ouchy. Ok, so I think I might take today off and think about it (or not and let it just stew in my head), and make my decision later...I have another novel waiting to be edited, and I'd like to get to it sometime this year if possible, and to be honest I think it'll take less work than this monster. For one thing, it's shorter. For another thing, I plotted it better and managed to stay on track more with it.

Blechy.

Absorbtion and Regurgitation

Not in the gross way of course. But I've been thinking. When someone starts writing, they're doing a lot of copying. Not on purpose of course, but they still do it. I'm not really excluding myself in this, I think maybe I still do it some. It's like... you read in a book how a crossbow is described and explained, and then when you decide to write about it, no matter how you try to do it, it sounds a lot like how it was in the book you read. You might not notice it, but often it's like that.

I think it's because you don't know enough about your own writing, so you're just regurgitating bits of information. Proper research of say, a crossbow would help you too, so you actually know how it works, but it's partly just because you don't know how you would really explain it. Developing your own style seems to just be a thing of learning to type down smaller and smaller bits of information that you hear, until they can be so shuffled up that no one can tell.

That's what's been floating around my head anyway. I've been meaning forever to write a post on it, so I finally did - when I'm supposed to be editing no less.

My Bad!

-smacks self- I've been meaning all day to write a post and I've never gotten it done. I feel like I have to write how my line-editing went, so I'll just jot this down before I trot off to bed.

This morning I got up and printed off the first part of my book, and settled in with some different colors of pens to start marking it up. Red was deletions and grammar/spelling, Purple was for inconsistencies and fact changes, Green for overused words and phrases, and Blue for stuff that needs rewriting, whether it be something that doesn't sound right or something that person wouldn't say or do or think.

There's a lot of blue. And I'm sure there's more to be seen. Now, I edited on paper today, but I think maybe I'll try editing on the computer a bit, to see which I like better. Computer saves trees, but I wonder if it'll kill my novel...

I just have to remember to always ask: is that the very best way to say that?

And this is going to take several trips through each scene I'm sure. I've already gone through my first ten pages once or twice, and I keep finding new stuff. I need to put it into the computer soon though. Tomorrow!

Dun, dun, DONE!

So! This morning I FINALLY finished writing in the scenes that needed to be writing in. So now I can begin line-editing. I think.

Actually, there might be a few more spots that need to be redone or maybe split up and stuck in other places. But I don't want to bother with that now. I think I'll just deal with that when I come to it.

But now I come to a billion choices all at once. Do I edit on paper or on the computer? What exactly do I look for? Do I highlight or underline what's wrong first and then go back and correct it later? Or do I just correct it as I see it? At what point could I give it to my friends to beta-read? On and on it goes.

Let me see how much time I spend thinking about this I can count as editing.

Almost done!

I'm just about finished writing in my missing scenes. It's taken me long enough. I mostly just have to finish this one up, write one more that shouldn't be too long, and then I think I can start line-editing.

Which scares the snot outta me. I'm not the most grammatical person, and I'm little afraid of what I'll skip over deciding "oh, that's good enough." Or maybe I'll just end up rewriting the whole thing scene by scene when I read it's awfulness with a critiquing eye. I suppose that's what multiple passes are for. These things still scare me though.

Off to the internet to read about line-editing!

Thoughts on EdMo and Editing

So now that I'm a few days into NaNoEdMo, I thought I'd post a little of what I'm experiencing and what I think about my editing so far (as if I haven't talked about that at all).

So far things are going all right. I've gotten two hours done every day so far, and right now I'm 1 hour and 19 minutes ahead of schedule. It's strange going by hours instead of words or something like that. It's strange...usually I have no problems sitting still for two hours to write in the mornings, but now that I'm paying attention to the clock I find myself turning into a little ball of cramped-ness after an hour. I don't know, I probably get up around then when I'm writing anyway to get a snack or something, but I have to think now to stop my watch to avoid cheating.

I'm still working on writing in scenes, but I'm getting close to being done with that I think. I have about... two and a half scenes, not counting the epilogues? If I can finish that up this week, I'll be happy.

And then I have one more decision to make...I'm thinking of moving the very beginning of my novel to a little past the beginning and splitting it up into flashbacks or internal thinking flashback-type-things (like a flashback without the flash). That would involve yet more rewriting... but I'm thinking it would make things flow a little better. You know how someone said that to find the beginning of you novel you just rip off the first 30 pages and what's left is where you should actually start? I guess that's the kind of thing I need to do.

But I want to start line-editing! It would make a mile-stone for me. Of course, if I work on the first few scenes and then end up deleting them and splitting them up and putting them elsewhere, I'll be kicking myself.

I guess I have until I finish the rest of these other scenes to decide. And pondering this counts as editing time, right?

Let the Games Begin!

Can editing be considered a game? Anyway, I got up at 4:45 (eepers! That's early for me at least) and started to continue to fill in the scenes. It seems like having an aim definitely helps. I had no troubles getting up this morning. Maybe it helps I had definite timeframe that I could edit this morning.

After I got two hours in I went early to church, and now I'm home...messing around on my computer. I should see about making myself edit some more today. Buffer = good. And I don't actually know how much I need per day to make it. Let me think about what math that would take...

I don't know why that's always so hard for me. 1 hour 36 minutes per day, so I've already got a little bit of buffer. Sweet.

And now I go dashing off to make a spreadsheet to stay on track! AWAY!