I've talked a lot in this blog about how I'm 'editing' a novel. Looking back I think it's probably fairer to say I did a re-write. I reckon I must have written 20,000 words of new material and deleted 10,000 of a book that was only 42,000 words long when I started.
I massively expanded ideas that were hinted at in the old version and created a totally new ending. Even the major villain and his evil plan are new. The whole process took about ten weeks of intense re-thinking and re-writing. I think I was fooling myself to imagine that when it was re-edited, I'd only get typos back.
I got comments back yesterday. Guess what?
I've got to edit the damn thing again! The 'problems' are nowhere near as big as last time, but it's got to be done. Except this time, I have less than two weeks to do it. Luckily I'm not working at the moment and don't start my new job until two weeks hence. But I've got to prepare for that too.
The best analogy I can think is if a person had just run a marathon, heaved up half-dead at the finish line and some bugger had moved it ten miles down the road. Then when they crawl there, knees bleeding, three-quarters dead, they've moved it again, just a few miles down the road.
Don't worry though. I've got a plan. I've decided to re-write the clock and create totally new, extra hours in which to do this work, while deleting my need for sleep.
I massively expanded ideas that were hinted at in the old version and created a totally new ending. Even the major villain and his evil plan are new. The whole process took about ten weeks of intense re-thinking and re-writing. I think I was fooling myself to imagine that when it was re-edited, I'd only get typos back.
I got comments back yesterday. Guess what?
I've got to edit the damn thing again! The 'problems' are nowhere near as big as last time, but it's got to be done. Except this time, I have less than two weeks to do it. Luckily I'm not working at the moment and don't start my new job until two weeks hence. But I've got to prepare for that too.
The best analogy I can think is if a person had just run a marathon, heaved up half-dead at the finish line and some bugger had moved it ten miles down the road. Then when they crawl there, knees bleeding, three-quarters dead, they've moved it again, just a few miles down the road.
Don't worry though. I've got a plan. I've decided to re-write the clock and create totally new, extra hours in which to do this work, while deleting my need for sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment