I Should Be Editing....

While writing, I can leave the internet on, the television, work in the center of the chaos that is my living room and not be distracted once. Not once. Well, if there's blood, I'll look away from the writing to make sure it's not life threatening, but only blood will pull my attention from my work.



Editing is a different animal. While I'm editing, pretty much anything can persuade me to stop and check it out. Oh, look there's something on the carpet. I should check that out. Pretty leaf on the sidewalk. We should go for a walk while I'm up. I have mail! Oh, just five minutes to check my email and then I'll go back to rewriting. Well, maybe after I've checked out Goodreads...and Twitter...and...yes, this is how my mind works while editing.



This is a huge problem, folks. You know why? Because I'm about three books ahead of myself. Three fully polished and ready for that crackerjack agent who is able to see my brilliance and three more waiting for...me. They're calling "Renee, please clean us up. We're so dirty and stinky. Please, make us shiny and sparkly and impossible to resist. Please...stop looking at the damn email!" This is a relentless chant in my mind. I know I need to finish them, but I'd much rather start that new project. After all, there's a file full of those completely outlined and ready to write. What about those stories? They need to be born. The others are just smelly, they can wait. You can't stop birth, right? I must. I have to. Or else...what? Actually, I'm afraid I'll never get to them if I don't do it now.



Today I'm rewriting Albertsville, a manuscript I finished a couple of months ago. It's about 8000 words too short. I forgot scenes. What? It happens. I got all excited and forgot to look at my outline. So first, I must add these scenes, which are very important to tying the loose threads up, and then I must go through and pick it apart. Get rid of echoes, crappy dialogue, and all of that really boring stuff. Sigh. Oh and let's not forget Jack is waiting, and Rowan. They aren't pleased either. Jack has sat gathering dust for a year, Rowan about six months and both are great stories. In fact, aside from Wade Bowen in Dirty Truths, Jack is my favorite character so far. I love him. I just needed time to separate myself. My problem I guess is that I get new ideas and tend to become obsessed with new projects.



Oh and let's not forget paying the bills, kids, life, and all that. Those things jump in just to piss me off and mess up my mental schedule. I feel like a hamster on a wheel, running and running but getting absolutely nowhere. Ugh.



I'm such a whiner. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this. Does anyone work on just one project from start to finish? How do you do it? Are you medicated?



Oh, and some good news, We are Canadian has honored me as their member of the week. Thanks Tanya. I'm really flattered that you'd want my mug up on your home page for a whole seven days.



Really, I'm going back to Albertsville. Things are getting hot there, despite the snow. There's a lonely moose, a murderous town official and a randy city boy in love with a country girl who just betrayed him...let's not forget the mill foreman in love with Calvin, his shift foreman.