I have to think about that some more …
The voluminous echo of emptiness where a character should be … does that mean I need to put a character in there? Or should it be the other character who fills in the need for reaction here? What is the goal for this moment? Why?
As you may be able to determine, it’s deep into editing time, and the questions I write down are only half of what I ask as I go through for the third time (first, a general idea of flow and meaning and structure; second, a determined look at what happens, why, is it important; third, the action-reaction sequences – who should be there to do that thing, and where does it take the story now?
And – to top it all off when I was in super-editor-mode – I got hit in the [right] eye by a wasp! And have an eye-patch. Ever tried to do things with vision in one eye only (and the other is a wee bit on the short-sighted (okay, a lot) and the glasses don’t fit comfortably over the patch?)? Ever tried to stand straight when the world is only visible at a strange angle (and fuzzy)?
Two days – maybe three! That’s a lot of work down the drain. No amount of rescheduling can deal with it.
What to do with the character? Why am I distracted? What character? Where? What page was I on?
Do you think it might be time to close the workspace, shut it down, go into a dark place, turn off, block out, lie down – sleep, perchance to … No, dreams would only drag me back to work, because that’s when the sharpest ideas come to the front of the mind, isn’t it?
That moment between seeing the light, and closing down – the clarity of that thought, that direction, that moment – and you gotta get up to deal with it, ‘cos you know what happens if you don’t, right?
Yep. Memory fails. At least until the next time you do it, and then you slap yourself across the forehead (knock the eye-patch off), swear (wake up the other half), leap out of bed and mutter all the way to the work-space, and Write It Down.
Sometimes, the editing is the hardest part of the work. Sometimes, I’m sure there’s some form of worldly thing that puts its foot down and says ‘go home, go to bed, take some time out’ – but you know what?
I don’t have time. Life is short (that’s a dangerous thing to say, by the way). There are stories to be told, and … (whoops, lost the patch again)… is it time for a cuppa?
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tags: This post is part of SoCS – SoCS #SoCS Stream of Consciousness Saturday
