Rambling Thoughts After the First Round of Edits

 I know, there's a proper name for this phase of my editing process, but I'll leave that to the academics; I'm a writer.

Yesterday morning I set aside my red pen and orange and yellow highlighters.  What was left behind?  A manuscript littered with notes, mark-outs, circles, and, of course, highlighted passages.  The manuscript is a first rate mess and I can't wait to clean it up.

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I think a lot of people like to utilize YouTube for a little help with projects like changing out ball joints on a 2016 Subaru Forester, or how to change the battery in a 2019 Indian Roadmaster.  I also like to use it to stay focused while maybe picking up on a few things here and there.

Part of my daily writing routine is to watch a random Booktuber.  Sometimes the video is a complete miss, other times there are little nuggets of golden information, lessons to tuck away into my writing toolbox, and even, like this morning, I stumble on a creator worth following (Ginger's Creative Corner).

The most disappointing of those are the one's that exist for only one purpose; to sell you their product.  Don't get me wrong, I think all of us are here in the online atmosphere to sell something.  (Buy my books!)  The part that turns me away is when these creators pitch a thought process that is wrapped around a middle of the video hard sell of a product that will help the viewer with the very thing they are discussing. It happens in a way that screams they are interested in helping you, if you choose to buy their stuff!

I see this a lot from the freelance editing community.  They present themselves as your peers in the writing community, yet in reality, they view themselves as above you and if you want to improve, you must hire them to edit your pathetic attempt at a story.  There is typically an element of discouragement.  A lot of times you catch it in the titles, "Your Cover Design is Wrong!".  (that one coming from a publisher wanting to sell his services)

Some of it is phishing for that sweet spot within the algorithm that drives traffic.  We all know, two things sell, sex and negativity, and writing just isn't sexy (to most, at least).  So, telling the writer how bad they are in the title and even in the content of the video, brings viewers.  It also discourages new writers, whether that is the intention of the creator is left for another discussion.

I take issue with this approach (obviously). Why brow beat authors with a title like "7 Cringey MISTAKES Writers Make With MALE Characters".  The title immediately implies that you, the writer, are writing cringeworthy characters.  And really, the tone of the video does kind of reflect this (at least the short bit I watched).  The purpose of the video is made clear, five minutes in, with a forty-five second sales pitch.  Can't the title and overall tone of the video be more like what the video creator is pushing the hard sell on "How to Write Realistic Men and Women".  

I feel the writing community, overall, should be encouraging, and in some cases, a little more humble.  My way of doing things is, well, my way of doing things.  It works for me, and I'm more than willing to share, but I'm not going to tell you that what you're doing is wrong.

Writing is full of guide wires that can be pushed a bit here and there, and if you bend that guide wire with intent, the result just may be golden.

The Purge

 Creatives strive to improve with each project.  Writers want their next book to better than the last.  The question is; where does that happen?

I am currently crawling my way through the first edit of my third book.  Aside from the obvious goal of publishing this book, I want this book to be the best one I've written so far.  And staring at the brain dump of the first draft?

Ugh.

Aren't they ugly?  The rough draft, I mean.  They are littered with typos, unmentionable grammar failures, lost storylines, flat characters, and a plethora of other writing crimes.  When the goal is to be a better writer, the sloppy copy can be an absolute discourager.  Fifty chapters into this first edit and I truly question my ability as a writer.  Then, I have to sit back and remind myself of what a rough draft is.

For myself, the rough draft is a purge.  I am typing as fast as I can to purge the story from my mind before it fades away into obscurity.  If I slow down to consider past versus passed, or where to plop down a couple of beats to set a proper pace of the conversation, I lose my precarious hold of the story in my head.  I just have to type.  To hell with all of the "rules".  The grammar police just need to have a sandwich, because I have work to do here.

Regardless of how strong the drive to improve can be, we have to remind ourselves that the rough is the wrong place to look.  I would love the purge to be filled with proper balance of introspect and dialog, for the descriptions to paint a perfect landscape photo.  As I write more, I'm certain those aspects will incrementally improve, but the rough draft is the rough draft.  The first edit will always highlight the flaws.

That is why we edit.

I believe our improvements happen with our editing.  We get better at recognizing the flaws in our writing, and in our story.  With that recognition comes improved corrections, which ultimately result in an improved story.

I saw one of the talking heads in the booktube declare that if you edit your less than twenty times, then your book will fail.

My response?

Dude, you need to get better at editing.

A New Beginning

I have decided that Friday's will become my day of working on social media.  It's a part of marketing, and I really stink when it come's to marketing.  A part of that is probably talking about where I have been, and where I am going.  So here it goes.

Some point in 2014 I completed and published Requiter.  My writing life had taken a direction that involved an upward trajectory. I had written over half of the third book, which meant sometime in 2015 or early 2016 it would be published and I would be on to the next.

Then work happened.  Okay, maybe it happened before Requiter was published.  It happened regardless.

With the first two books I worked forty to fifty hours a week at my bill-paying job. This left me with time to work on my passion.  Somewhere around 2014 (it's all a blur), I picked up more responsibilities and a crew of folks to manage, because of that corporate buzzword "downsizing". The department I worked most closely with went from five people down to two. I was no longer close to that department, I became one of those two.

For ten years or more, my short weeks were sixty hours, and I averaged closer to seventy hours a week.  The money was great, but the balance between work and home was shot.  There were times when it would have been more productive to just throw a cot into my office and nap when it was convenient.

You can imagine, no, you can see, my passion took a shot in the spine and laid paralyzed in the corner of the room.  When I was at home, I was too drained (mentally and physically) to do anything.  Lack of sleep really took a toll.

The summer of 2023 brought the beginning of the end.  An event woke me up and I let the company know I was done.  January of 2024 I made my last appearance at my place of employment and I haven't looked back since.

Like starting a gas-powered weed eater at the beginning of the season, it took several pulls and multiple false starts to get the passion on the move again.

And it feels great!

For several weeks, now, I have been in the habit of writing.  Each morning I climb out of bed, work out, walk/run five miles (this morning I did neither...), then lock myself away in my little room and work on my craft. 

I write, I edit, I read about both, I watch videos about it, and I've even looked into making some of my own videos.  At the very least, for five mornings a week, it is all about writing.

I just finished up a pencil edit of chapter 37.  I don't know what the timeline is, now that I don't have a day job, but I do know that this third book is well on its way to completion.

I am excited!

Some Things Are Forgotten

Until they are remembered...

For ten short years, I poured my life into my job.

That was a mistake.

My passion fell to the wayside, as my career ascended.

Then fell flat on its face.

Now, I ended that soul-sucking career and have turned my attention back to where it should have been all along.

Moral of my story?

Your employer doesn't care about you.  You may think they do.  You may think that years of hard work gets rewarded.  You may even believe, your employer is different.  Don't fall for it.  Bank the money you earn from the hard work and be prepared to move on.

Yes, it sounds like sour grapes, and perhaps it is.  But I have returned my full attention to a passion forgotten.

And it feels good.