Editing!

Sometimes you just need to know when to stop already. Being sick to death of a story is not a good reason to end it, but on the other hand, how much longer was I going to let this drag on? Yesterday I wrote my final scene and at last it was time to begin editing. I will say at the outset that the last line of my story is unacceptable to me and I'll need to change it. But it's one line ~ an important line, absolutely, but I'm fairly certain something will come to me. That's no reason not to begin reading the manuscript from the beginning.

As I began, it hit me that my stories always start out great, even though I haven't a clue where they'll lead. The writing is crisp, interesting, confident. I guess ignorance can give someone confidence. I wish I was able to maintain that level throughout the story, but things happen that sabotage it. Lots of dialogue takes place, number one, and that leads me to abandon "pretty" narrative. And for some reason I employ a lot of movement. A character can't seem to just say something; they need to pat the other character on the back or give someone the side eye. I know I'm doing it, but just plain dialogue doesn't convey my meaning. I recognize it's too much, though.

One advantage I have with this manuscript is that I created an entirely separate document titled, "Additions", which I typed in red. (I figured it would be easier to slot in to the original wherever I needed to, plus if I changed my mind I'd know what block to delete.) So while editing, if I was happy with the previous paragraph I'd change the font to black and now I know where I left off. I spent almost four hours reading yesterday and I'm not even close to being through the thing. I don't even want to guess what the final word count is. 

For the most part (so far) I'm okay with the flow, except for a couple of nagging issues regarding grounding. My locales change a lot ~ one minute the MC's at home, then she's at work ~ and I need to go back and clarify where she is at a given moment. As the story played out in my mind, I obviously knew the setting of a particular scene, but that's because I was "seeing" it. Readers won't be watching a movie. That's fixable.

Another problem is the lead-up to a middle scene that's rather important and turns out to be a surprise to the MC. I don't think I foreshadowed it very well. My problem is that I don't relish writing romantic scenes because I'm not good at them. (Okay, it's a marriage proposal.) I don't like the scene and probably shouldn't keep it, but it's part of the story's progression, so he's got to propose sometime. It reads kind of "ick". Ahh, editing ~ such "fun".

I get annoyed with myself when I run across these bad choices, even though everybody makes them. 

Writers, do you often forget about scenes you wrote way back when? I was surprised reading passages I had no recollection of writing. And it's only been a couple of months!

I know editing is going to be a long process, but I can comfort myself with the knowledge that the words are already written, unless I run across some major problems. This book will never be perfect. Is any author ever satisfied with their own work? Well, there is one, at least. The successful author whose podcast I watch just said that he finished his newest book and the last chapter is the best he's ever written; even the best anyone has written. He wasn't joking.

Maybe the finish line isn't too far off. Maybe everything will work out great. Maybe I'm investing too much in a book that'll never go anywhere. Probably true, but I, at least, need to like it.