Editing my novel...

I’ve completed the project in the allotted time! I call this a win, but … I’m only 5-6 chapters into like 50. So I want to try to continue the momentum once this project is over!

Things I knew were going to cause me problems:

1. The stream of consciousness chapters
2. Italics. I hate italics.
3. Maintaining the flow.

How did I tackle those issues?

1. Well, in the months leading up to this project I talked to my fellow writers in the #writing channel, especially Hrockle who I need to give an honorary mention to at this point. Talked a lot about the editing and how I could maintain a stream of consciousness while not making it too alien for a reader. This included adding a lot of descriptors for those chapters, and on average those chapters got 50-80% longer. If that is a trend that keeps up, we’re gonna have a lot of writing still ahead.
2. Honestly, I dealt with italics because I could not for the life of me come up with a better way to keep the stream of consciousness chapters without too many changes.
3. Frankly, still suck at maintaining the flow. I work in bursts, and I need to figure out a way for myself to get into a rhythm every day and follow my own damn advice for new writers. That said, once I get started and get into it, I can actually maintain that pace for a solid hour or two, which is better than it was before the project where I’d get bored of it in 30 minutes.

Things I learned from the project:

1. I really hate detail oriented stuff.

So, I always knew I was more of a “big picture” kind of person, less of a minute detail person, but I didn’t know it was this bad. I struggle focusing on individual paragraphs, sentences, or chapters for long periods of time. Once I reach that limit of internal focus there’s no use continuing for the day. That said, I always thought I couldn’t do it, but apparently I can. Wish I’d known how to do this for my academic papers rather than writing them in 1-3 days and never even reading them back before hitting SUBMIT.

2. Versioning.

So, I kept the original draft, and have now started basically sectioning the novel into individual chapters so I can compare the versions later. It’s an interesting process, but I feel like I am not getting much out of it myself, but it has already helped TREMENDOUSLY in terms of getting feedback, especially fellow Knight, GreenHeroMiru, has been an all-star in that regard.

3. Editing is hard.

Some people love editing, others hate it. I fall into the latter category. I don’t mean that I hate the process, but rather everything that goes into it. You’re not just examining “Is the flow of this chapter intact? Did I include everything I wanted to and does it not detract from the reading experience?” but also comma’s, semicolon’s, and periods. There is a lot of detail-oriented work that goes into it, a lot of which I had absolutely zero experience in at least in the “novel” level editing.

The difference between Poetry and a novel is staggering. With poems, you have to think about more, but in a different way. You measure every word, every syllable, to try to maximize the impact of every single thing, whereas with novels you are trying to, primarily balance the transference of information with the reading experience. You aren’t trying to maximize the impact of each word, rather you are trying to A) not overwhelm the reader with too much information, B) try to not make your sentences too long, C) keep the suspense alive throughout long sections, D) all the things.

I won’t call one harder than the other, but the challenges are completely different ones.

Finally “finished” - that is to say, for now - editing chapters 4 & 5.

It took me a long time to get back into the rhythm of things, and am realizing more than ever what aspects of my writing style I need to develop. PROGRESS.

Managed to do absolutely NOTHING over the weekend and friday, but looking to get into it SOON.

Started work on chapters 4 & 5, formerly chapter 4. When re-reading it I realized it would have to be two chapters rather than one, so it’s been a lot of work to try to do that while not changing too much about the following chapters, since that would impact … well hundreds of pages.

Will see if it works, but so far it’s pretty satisfying albeit infuriating work.

Had a lot of family stuff happening this week, as well as starting a second project on impulse which has both helped and sabotaged this project.

Bright side? Managed to edit Chapters 2 AND 3 today, putting me on track for Week 4 of the project! I also think I lost track of what week is what, so I guess I’m on track for my original goals? I think? Time is relative. I might just continue working and get ahead of the curve, ride the wave, all that jazz.

I did find out that the chapters that take by far the most work are the ones originally written as a “stream of consciousness”. I think I like the original style, but it’s not as good for readers as the new style I am looking to adapt.

In true procrastinator fashion I didn’t find the ability to really work on this until around 1am on the day of the deadline. Once that time rolled around though I was able to BLAST through what remained of the weekly goal.

I now have “edited” (I have no idea if it’s any good) the first chapter of the novel! Made a document for myself to compare the original draft with the edited version once I feel like I am up for putting myself through that mental strain.

In case anyone is interested in reading it, you’ll have to message me on Discord :D!

It’s really hard to get back into a project after taking a break. The only time I spent on it today was opening the relevant documents, staring at them blankly for 20 minutes, forgetting the time, retaining zero information, and closing them again.

Time to try again tomorrow.

So, I chose to push the entire project back a week.

Initially I felt very guilty this past week. I spent a lot of hours enjoying the new patch for Cyberpunk 2077, enjoying the TFT 6.5 Mid-set update, and enjoying Total War: Warhammer 3. All of these things blindsided me (because I choose to ignore products until they launch), and … well I wanted to enjoy them while they were fresh, like fresh fruit is best enjoyed immediately.

That said, basically Monday through Friday I felt guilty because I wasn’t getting stuff on the project done after starting on Monday. I think I got maybe 40% of the goal done before my life was consumed by regular work stuff and these new toys.

Made the choice on Friday to just … say that it’s okay. The DK30 for me was primarily about getting started, and I did that! I learned a lot starting out, and I look forward to continuing to work on it after the novelty has worn off and I can enjoy them more responsibly!

Past me is an idiot to think that then-future-me would be able to do the entire novel despite it being a theoretically minute task.

I was going to make a second DK30 about how I was going to hand in some administrative paperwork that I’ve been sitting on for months. NAILED THAT ONE BY THE WAY. However, it left me a deflated soufflé for … about three days. I wasn’t doing great before then but WHATEVER. I got up to like … Chapter 13 separated into its own little document which should be more than sufficient for starting editing tomorrow when I wake up. So whatever, call it a success.

Frankly, tomorrow when I wake up the real war begins, my internal war on editing and confronting yourself with your own creativity in a battle for supremacy. No, scratch that, quality. Let the games begin…