Six years ago feels like an eternity into my past.
2011.
What a wild ride.
I was a Canadian who had just moved to Australia, slowly going stir crazy and watching what little savings I had evaporate before my very eyes. I was struggling to find purpose, let alone a job, and for some crazy reason, I decided to fire up my extremely terrible laptop and write. I pulled up the second-hand coffee table, to the second-hand lounge and typed up my first post on my three hundred dollar laptop.
2017.
I could tell you not much has changed, but that would be an absolute lie.
- I not only landed a job at Kmart, but then got promoted.
- I switched jobs to JB HI FI, and then got promoted there.
- I wrote the first (extremely rough) draft of a one hundred thousand word novel.
- We moved from renting, to owning and this year we begin building our home.
- I wrote two hundred and fifty eight posts (not including this one) for the blog.
- Pop vinyl collecting went from casual collecting to hoarder. Alas, I am not ashamed.
- I began a second blog about building a home.
- We got two dogs, a miniature dachshund, and cavalier king charles spaniel.
- I’ve been to (in no particular order) Japan, Italy, Croatia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Insanity.
So much more to come with the actual building of the house this year, a final trip to New Zealand before we’re broke homeowners and that’s just the stuff I know about!
Where does that leave my writing?
Left for dead sadly. This year has not been a productive year for my novel. Each time I go back to look at it, I change it. I understand this is a good thing, however, it is also disheartening.
I mean honestly, when is it done? When will it be good enough to publish? I’ve paid for worse books, but does that justify my own novel not being at the level of the writers I adore? It’s really hard when the path ahead is so vague. I’ve watched a dozen Ted Talks and read a few books on writing a novel, but I suppose deep down I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to this point.
So in closing, after all four hundred words here, I have a question.
Does anyone have any good recommendations on editing your novel? Youtube Video, Ted Talk, book, ritual, sacrifice or even a new god to worship… I’ll take any and all suggestions!
Also, sorry for being super slack on the blog, as you can see above it’s been a hell of a time!
Thoughts on editing:
As you know, no book is ever finished: it just hits the publisher’s deadline.
This means that if you’re writing without a deadline, it can be very hard to finish.
For self-editing, I generally put the book aside for a few weeks and then come back and read it through slowly with a critical eye, looking out for plot holes, spelling mistakes and anything that irritates me.
Usually a book needs several read-throughs to iron out most of the mistakes; then if possible I get a friend to read it through to pick up the holes I’ve missed.
(Yes, there will still be mistakes. There are always mistakes.)
I think authors can be far too critical of their own work. It’s easy to destroy a good book by over-editing. If in doubt, put the book aside for six months and write something else. Then you can come back to the book with a clear mind and it may well be that you’ll realise that it is basically fine.
Admittedly — as I also edit other writers’ work — there are authors who are not nearly critical enough of their own work. Editors were invented for these people.
Thanks a ton Helen! Also sorry it took me so long to reply, I’ve been quite distracted as you’ll see in my latest post! Unfortunately, I don’t have something as lovely as a publisher’s deadline to worry about, so the work just remains daunting as I stare into its deep abyss. My biggest problem is that I had the loosest plan ever when it came to writing the story: 5 plot points which were really just the direction I wanted to head in and what needed to happen somewhere around 20k words for each point. The characters are what carried the story, but mostly through dialogue… so now I face the daunting task of fleshing out the parts of the world I wrote when I probably should have been drinking coffee and ironing out those sentences that don’t sit well.
That all being said, I did exactly as you suggested and left it for awhile to start two other projects, both based in the same world; One, a prequel based off the antagonist and another set roughly 2000 years after the events of my completed novel. They’re going well but I think I need to pause and flesh out the world Tolkien style!