Damn You Editors! Damn You All To Hell!

So I have been away from my latest novel, the third instalment of my paranormal P. I. Jonathan Alvey, for a number of months now. Things crept into my life and forced the novel onto the sidelines. It happens. But I want to get back to it, submerse myself into it, and get back to writing it.

So I have a printed out, hard copy, version of what I did write_ the first third I estimate of the novel. I find it easier to read that way, less prone to distract myself editing and changing and rewriting. There is a time for that and for me, that time comes a few months after I have finished writing it. Now is the time to soak up the words and dive back in.

It has been slow – my muse hasn’t really unpacked from her vacation and so hasn’t fallen into stride yet ( stride = whipping me until I write the visions she shares) – and thus I am almost forcing myself to read these pages. I have swore to myself I will do one chapter a day minimum. Today I did two chapters but I am having a problem.

My problem is that, even though it is on paper, I can’t seem to quell the internal editor.

I blame all the editors in my life.

I’m seeing the awkward phrasing, the boring ‘tells’ instead of ‘shows’, I am constantly thinking ‘there’s a ‘was‘ – gotta cut that. Oh there’s another of the little bastards’, and also the newest issue – brought about through my edits for the short story coming out this October – the large breaks in the middle of a dialogue scene.

So here I am, trying to just read the story and I can’t stop my brain from correcting it. Who shall I lay the blame on? That is correct – those dastardly fiends, The Editors!

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: editor, Jonathan Alvey, novel, short story, work in progress