Good Saturday morning!
Did some good work yesterday, both with Claude, my AI buddy, using his analysis of some of my chapters and my wonky outline (in school, I was an outlining demon! I absolutely loved analyzing things–stories, math, science, history, you name it–and making outlines and flowcharts and, well, it just goes on. You know, back in the day when I had ENERGY LOL.) and I was such a nerd, geek, sometimes turd LOL, that the years just flew by and I was happy as a toad on a lily pad charting and spreadsheeting and flowcharting and analyzing away. Little did I know then that it would become part of my career tools, but hey, I was a kid.).
I say wonky outline because it’s a totally different thing being CREATIVE and ANALYZING your own story! I can do others in a snap. But my own? Ack. So anyway, I did that yesterday and got some great new insights into my story I didn’t even realize were there. Have you ever had someone tell you something about your story you never realized? That was me yesterday. So good work all around.
I also played with Canva making little promo videos. Let’s say, they aren’t great but I’m learning.
So, this Saturday morning I’m drinking my Douwe Egberts Senseo espresso and perusing email, in this case, reading one of my fave authors’ newsletter, V. E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue for instance), and so jiving with her story.
In her newlsetter she said…
“I felt like I was going sideways, if not backwards, that the book was getting worse instead of better, and I turned all of my anger and criticism inward. Why wasn’t I smart enough to fix the book? Or, more accurately, why couldn’t I see and strategize and fix every single thing I needed to in a single sweep?
I too often forget that editing is a process of improvement, not an instant of perfection (more on that below).”
I needed to be reminded of that. “a process of improvement, not an instant of perfection” is so true. I expect my book to be edited just like that! But no. It must be layered and tweaked and molded and smoothed over. Kinda like doing pottery, or baking bread, only a much longer and more complicated and intense process.
She’s currently editing her Villains series. She says of it…
“…I find editing more integral but less satisfying than drafting, as far as daily metrics go. I can—and have—spent days working on a single moment, trying to find the right words.
(There is a scene in Victorious that I have re-written six times to date, adjusting the movement, scrapping and redoing all the dialogue, trying to strike the (she strikes through the word “perfect”) right balance of plot and information.)”
Well! I see I’m not the only one!
I wrote two new chapters last week and I’m STILL tweaking them to bring forth this pivotal moment of realization for my sidekick character, Carson, to get past his emotional shock in these two chapters and realize at the end that “oh shit” he’s gotta go find Zara (our protagonist) and tell her and get her out of there! Like, right now! LOL.
My first attempt was a disaster. My crit group thought HE was half-Grigori instead of his estranged wife he’d just found in the labs. So, no. Rewrite! And, I’m moving on how because I know, on the next layer of edits, it’ll improve immensely (I’m thinking positively y’all LOL).
When I began writing novels for publication, (totally different than “just writing” believe me), I had started on an epic fantasy. Then realized, jeeez this thing is complicated! I have to make up a whole new world, religion, mythology, and so on. I’ll return back to my urban fantasy. That’ll be easy, simpler. World is already built. Well….
Hope your Saturday is Saturtastic!
