Writing and Editing

Writer’s block is a disease I’ve avoided. Stories are always in my mind to be written. Sometimes they are started and don’t proceed correctly and they are put aside until later. Another story takes its place and my files fill to bulging. It’s enjoyable as I have left this world and am in the one I’m writing. Then reality hits and the story must be gone over to insure that there are no errors. Editing became my bane. Now things have changed.

Who knew doing edits could be exhilarating? In any of the interviews I have done when asked what was my least favorite part of writing, I have always responded: Editing.

This will probably remain true when doing my own self-editing. It is tedious! I know what I have written and what the words convey. It’s a conceit that is probably shared by many writers. Your eyes tend see what you think you have written, even while reading aloud. Writers are readers and that means they read rapidly. Our mind tells us what the correct phrase should be and our eyes can “read” right over a missing word. Spell Check at least puts a red line underneath a misspelled word. Of course, if it is the wrong homonym and spelled correctly Spell Check and often the Grammar Check will miss it.

I had carefully combed over Earthbound four times and kept finding small errors. The words were embedded. Memory was taking over recognition of errors. It was time to admit failure. I gave up and did hire an editor.

That was an interesting experience. The editing process was fairly rapid, her price was decent and within a manageable level. Thanks, Jan, for your work and support. With her help I felt Earthbound was ready to submit.

This time I took the advice in one of the writer’s magazines and sent it to a small press publishing company. To my surprise, dMon Publishing accepted it. Now the real editing began. This was crunch time.

It’s an entirely new world. I look forward to each chapter or chapters as it depends on how many are sent back to me. It is as if I am back in MacDonald’s and Anna’s world and it is clear how everything should be written. Editing has become exciting, exhausting, yes, sometimes frustrating, but always a pleasure to feel that the chapter is complete and their story is being told properly.