I did it. I really did it. Sort of. I finished chapter 1 or the prologue; I'm not sure exactly. Either way I finished something. That was hard. But not as hard as editing. My paper bleeds with red ink and screams with every mark. Or perhaps that is me screaming. Paragraphs I thought were so good, so witty, so... readable; have been slaughtered, butchered even for their disappointing performance.Perhaps I should compare this process to the chef in the kitchen, with his fine knives and fragrant spices rather than to his neighbor the butcher who wields his cleaver through flesh and bones and reeks of death.
As I read through my work, it really does feel like the butcher wrote it. Huge slabs of meat coated with curtains of fat hanging on hooks. You know what it is and you know it has the potential to taste good, but it is still a slab of raw meat. Now I have my chef hat on and I am taking that slab of meat and trimming the fat. Tenderizing the flesh and seasoning to taste.
Fire up the grill, I think it will be delicious.
2 comments:
I know the feeling. I'm in the process of editing and re-editing drafts of my nearly complete first novel, and as good as you may feel about one sentence or another, the amount of effort and polishing it takes to make something truly professional and publishable is daunting.
Thanks for your comment Benjamin.
Outlining is fun, but easy. Writing is fun, but hard.
Editing is painful. That's it. There is no but.
It's really painful, because it forces us to look closely at our mistakes and flaws. And when we solely concentrate on the negatives it can tear us down.
However, it does also let us see what works and allow us to learn from our mistake after mistake after mistake.
I am nowhere close to anything even close to publishing so I wont comment on that.
Shawn C. Speakman www.shawncspeakman.com
Is very knowledgeable about those issues. Check it out.
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