William Amerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "editing"
Milestones on your finger
Writing used to be a journey of mystery, self-discipline, even greater self-importance and hubris, all covered by a skin so think you could see through it if you held me up between two branches of a tree in winter.
Because it was so damned hard, completing a page was a milestone to be celebrated. Completing a chapter was cause to drink heavily and shout with fevered anticipation at the wonders in store for my dear readers. And finishing an entire book? I carried that warm nugget of self-congratulation deep in my belly for months.
Thankfully, whether it was through the patient tough love of my editors, or some greater plain of maturity I achieved, it is no longer most of those things. Or, perhaps the change is due to a deeper understanding of the mechanics of architecting and constructing a novel? Knowing where I need to hew to the tried and true methods of telling a story (I'm a shameless three act man, now), and where I can safely veer off the road to let my inner literary fireGod rampage through the ditches.
Yes. I've finished another book. Well, finished the mind-boggling editing journey that began in freaking June of last year. Hmmm, let me ponder that for a second. It's my own damned fault, actually. See, halfway through Sky2 my word count sat at about 80,000 and I felt only halfway through. Instead of putting out a 160,000 word book (sorry, Ayn), I made what I thought was a brilliant decision. "hey, if I cut this sucker in two, I'll have TWO books to put out." Holy shit what a bad idea. See, without understanding framework, these are the types of decisions I made.
However, Sky3 is back from the second proofreader and sits on my hard drive. Cover complete (soooo many revisions). All that's left is creating front-matter, converting to Amazon and Smashword friendly formats and publishing. And then the incredibly trite task of marketing. Which seems doubly painful because Sky4 is roaring along like a rocket sled through the russian forest. 3,000 words yesterday and yes, you've guessed it, the blog entries are back as a diversion from writing. Ha. Happy Saturday.
Because it was so damned hard, completing a page was a milestone to be celebrated. Completing a chapter was cause to drink heavily and shout with fevered anticipation at the wonders in store for my dear readers. And finishing an entire book? I carried that warm nugget of self-congratulation deep in my belly for months.
Thankfully, whether it was through the patient tough love of my editors, or some greater plain of maturity I achieved, it is no longer most of those things. Or, perhaps the change is due to a deeper understanding of the mechanics of architecting and constructing a novel? Knowing where I need to hew to the tried and true methods of telling a story (I'm a shameless three act man, now), and where I can safely veer off the road to let my inner literary fireGod rampage through the ditches.
Yes. I've finished another book. Well, finished the mind-boggling editing journey that began in freaking June of last year. Hmmm, let me ponder that for a second. It's my own damned fault, actually. See, halfway through Sky2 my word count sat at about 80,000 and I felt only halfway through. Instead of putting out a 160,000 word book (sorry, Ayn), I made what I thought was a brilliant decision. "hey, if I cut this sucker in two, I'll have TWO books to put out." Holy shit what a bad idea. See, without understanding framework, these are the types of decisions I made.
However, Sky3 is back from the second proofreader and sits on my hard drive. Cover complete (soooo many revisions). All that's left is creating front-matter, converting to Amazon and Smashword friendly formats and publishing. And then the incredibly trite task of marketing. Which seems doubly painful because Sky4 is roaring along like a rocket sled through the russian forest. 3,000 words yesterday and yes, you've guessed it, the blog entries are back as a diversion from writing. Ha. Happy Saturday.
