It may or may not be a train coming through…
To tell you the unvarnished truth, I’m amazed I can still read straight after this weekend. No, I’m not done the edit. But I am way further than I expected to be at this point, so I guess I’ll have to be grateful for that much.
I’ve edited my way through 10 chapters since my last post, and while that only puts me a little over halfway, it’s far better than I expected with the way the first few chapters went. Also, there’s some reason to hope that I was right, that it’s just a case of the first few chapters needing a lot of work. I’ve done five chapters already today (and may be able to squeak in another before bed time, two if I decide lots of sleep is optional), and none of them required the major surgery the first three needed. Yay. I’m almost kind of hopeful that I’ll be able to get through a couple of chapters each day for the rest of the week, which would be enough to get me almost done. Three a day will nail it, but I think that’s hoping for too much on days where I have to do the day job thing. We’ll see how close I am at the end of the day on Thursday. I’m currently at the start of Chapter 15. 12 more to go, including the epilogue, 4 days to do it in. I’m starting to think this might not be a lost/hopeless cause.
Before you ask (because I could see you were about to), no, I still haven’t looked at the outline for Where The Ether Flows. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so busy trying to get this edit pass done while still doing a good job at it, or if I’m just afraid that I’ll find the outline isn’t good enough and have to put NaNo on hold while I fix it. Toss a coin, it could be either. Or both. That would be typically me. I think that part of the problem is that I keep wondering if I’ve done enough world-building, if I know enough about what’s going on and who my characters are to start writing. But the last time I wondered that, I got told I did a great job at it, so maybe it is enough. Besides, as much as I rely on my outline, I don’t tend to plan every single detail (don’t act so shocked), and I like to give enough room and flexibility for my story to breathe and change when needed. We’ll see how it goes once I get started. The worst thing that could happen is that I write it, decide it doesn’t work then junk the manuscript and start over again after I figure out what went wrong. And if that sounds familiar, you just won the home version of this little game. Yes, that’s exactly what happened with Bound, the first book in the Mirrors of Bershan trilogy. Since that worked out fairly well on my second try at the first draft, I’m not going to sweat it if I have to do the same with Ether Flows. It’s all part of the process, right?
Okay, that’s enough of a break from editing. I’ll leave you with this picture while I go back to slaving in the trenches. 🙂
Word Flows 
You’re a writing beast!
Why thank you!
As you well know, there’s a fine line between being disciplined with a schedule and forcing something when you should step back. As long as you’re disciplined, you don’t need to worry about some variation in your plans. But if you feel like you could be crossing the line into forced writing/editing, don’t hesitate to take a good walk, eat a good meal, and get a good night’s sleep. 🙂
Oh, man, do I know that line. I like to flirt with it all the time 🙂
My feeling is that, as long as I’m finding problems still and not editing half-asleep, I’m probably still on the right side of it. If, on the other hand, I get to the end of a chapter and think it’s perfect, then I’ve gone too far. After all, it’s the first pass. Nothing’s perfect at this stage.
But definitely, plans are meant to be changed as needed, always.
Great Capture
Thanks!
Wow. your schedule’s inspiring. you’re like the Chuck Norris of writing!
… without the beard. 😀
Thanks. Sometimes I think I’m a little crazy to try to do so much. Then I remember that I’m a LOT crazy to begin with. 😀