Here we are to Wednesday and like I have been doing for a week I am still editing my second book. There is still no word on launch date on the first from the publisher. I continue to press to finish the next novel and hopefully I will be ready to market the first without having to worry about what is going to follow.
Like most of us know, the editing process is filled with pain, amazement and sometimes downright embarrassment. When I come across a pleasing line I am always amazed that I actually wrote it. The embarrassment comes in when a line has obvious faults or blazing amateur signals. It is a blessing that the mistake was caught but then the pain of doubt creeps in. “How many others did I miss?” is the question of the moment.
Here is a conversation I had with myself on Monday.
“WTF John. You know that dialog tag doesn’t work.”
“What do you mean? You think putting “he asks with a puzzled look on his face,” after a question is wrong?”
“Wrong has nothing to do with it. You look like a third grader. The question mark is enough. The rest can go into a sentence.”
“Good point. It does look silly.”
“Also that so-called prose written about your character discussions should be dialog.”
“You mean relating what two people said to each other should be in the form of dialog and not a description even though my descriptions are glorious.”
“Duh. Your readers will fall asleep on that crap. If not they will skip the part and lose some pretty impactful interaction by your characters.”
“You are right. I have a number of these and it can get a little boring.”
“Dump the deep character descriptions as well. Let your readers get an image of the characters in their mind by relating to what they do not how they look.”
“You are starting to question all my meticulous character development?”
“No I am telling you to develop them in action not literary pap. What is up with that mirror description anyway?”
So it went on and on. I wonder sometimes why I do all the bad things that I know are out-of-place, clumsy and often confusing. I put it down to an evil hack trying to get out and take over. That could be another discussion for another blog, but for now I’ll just keep editing while I tear my face off.
Happy Wednesday all.
Your problems sound wonderful to me – I’m still struggling to get a first draft onto the page. 😉
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just you wait. . . 🙂
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I’m so there. Only I’m a dialog tag junkie, so my inner editor is always yelling that I used the wrong one. Ever hit a point where you use the same word twice, but you can’t find a way to fix it no matter how hard you think?
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I sure have. I usually rewrite the whole sentence. (pain)
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I’ve done that. Though I’ve found some where I can even figure that out. Rare, but it happens.
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I would love to be a fly on the wall inside your head. I’m sure your internal dialogues (or would it really be a monologue?) must be entertaining.
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Entertaining for me . but sure get strange looks from others. 🙂
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Hahaha, I love internal dialogues like that, I think we all do it (well I do it anyway). Sometimes I go back and look at my work and think all of this is crap. Seems like you’re doing really well with your WIP, you might not catch all of it but you are catching enough, I think that is what is important.
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Well I hope so. Thanks for the comment. 🙂
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Ouch! You are also a mind reader…last edit, I swear (as she thinks about those attribution tags that went on for ten words, the third grade literary pap, the double words sometimes in three sentences in a row.). Last edit, I swear. Ten thousand “ands” and nearly as many “ases”. Delete them…make two sentences, no, that disturbs your flow, your style (ha), your sedating effect on people who are trying to read themselves to sleep at night, Yeah! That’s what I was trying to do. Read that mental dialog out loud John, and we shall make a reality TV show, “Author’s Journey to the Dark Side.”
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Heh heh heh I like the concept. Picture a dweeby author on a high stool telling himself to shut the fuck up.
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Enjoyed your self-conversation there, John. I think a lot of us resemble that.
As for the evil hack that’s trying to get out, it appears that his one redeeming quality is he’s willing to put in the work and get words down. The other part of you (us) would rather sit back and criticize. Now that I think about it, our writing personalities are a microcosm of management vs. labor. They both hate each other, but in the end, the machine doesn’t achieve its full potential without the other.
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“Very well said.” he said. 🙂
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Gee, you do great dialog even when you’re talking to yourself 🙂
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Aw you are too kind. Thanks. I’ll take it
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🙂
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Oh, yes. I have the same issues. In some scenes I describe the setting in detail and in others I’m like: where the heck are these people anyway? And I have a lot of furrowed brows and nodding, smiling people. Ack!!
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Ack is the best word to describe that situation. I could kick my self every time I do the “he opened the door and went into the house.” stuff.
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John, after finishing my first novel, I found the perfect way of never having to edit another novel. Solution: Don’t ever write another damn novel again! Simple, huh?
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Sounds like a method that can be used to reduce child birth but doesn’t sound like fun. 🙂
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Wow. I feel your pain …
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Thank you. At least I know I am alive
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