A New Take On Editing

Well March is almost done and my edits are not. This is the point I would usually be freaking out, but I've developed a new belief system when it comes to writing and it's simply to "Let the words come."

I don't know about you all, but I have spent countless hours staring at my unchanged pages, trying to forced something to come to me which is usually doesn't. I panic, diagnose myself as mentally challenged and profess that I will never be blessed with another good idea again.

I completely stress myself out over it and in the end, the only thing gained were increased levels of self-loathing and carbs.

So here's my new plan:

1. Chill Out: a fruitless writing session doesn't mean I'm finished.
2. Dig Deeper: I find that most of the scenes that give me anxiety are simply because I haven't put myself in the characters shoes. If I what readers to believe it, I have to make it believable.
3. Take your time: Setting deadlines is important to this business, but I once hear an editor say to enjoy the freedom you have. Write at your creative pace. Sleep with a notebook beside your bed and jot things down in the dark.

Overall, I've learned that pushing back from the keyboard is less stressful than trying to force my imagination.

So I've still got 100 pages left to edit for UNDISTURBED, they just so happen to be the most crucial part of the book. If I rushed through them to meet the deadline in my head, I wouldn't be confident in the choices I make. Plus, it's not like a Novel is ever really finished. three years later and I'm still thinking of lines and scenes for my very first novel.

The key is Quality. Most of us prefer a good product to a rushed one, and you can always tell can't you. nearly 90,000 words written, revised, cut, and re-written is a very, very large investment of time and energy. It's the reason why writers get so bummed out when their hard work is some easily rejected.

I say make your investment count by taking your time to create something entertaining, well developed, and professional quality, even if that means missing a deadline or ten :o)

Lucky 7 Me :o)

Kelbian Noel tagged me over on her blog. She's introduced me to something called the Lucky 7 Meme. I'm supposed to do something really embarrassing. Share a sample of my unedited writing. Yikes! I figured what the hell. It's kind of fun looking at your story in snippets.

I decided to pull a excert from my revision of UNDISTURBED.

The Lucky 7 Meme:Rules

Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
Go to line 7
Copy down the next 7 lines--sentences or paragraphs--and post them as they're written. No cheating.
Tag 7 authors
Let them know

Here goes nothing:

That had to be a hallucination.

“Please, please don’t let it really be there,” I whispered. I would have preferred psychosis to any possibility of the flashes I’d seen or the fear collapsing my chest being real, but when I opened my eyes the card was there.

#

This was stupid, probably the stupidest thing I could be doing today, but I needed feel something other than sick to my stomach. My head was still spinning over my family reunion/ambush and Tony was my only diversion. I’d been sitting outside the boy’s locker room for twenty minutes and cursing myself the entire time. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t this girl, but I needed him.

(P.S. it's one line over, but I refuse to break an excert mid-sentence)

Here's my Tags:

Bekah Snow

Lori M Lee

PK HREZO

Angela McClanahan

Dawn's Rise (Andrew Rosenberg)

Naomi Canale

Author Beth Elisa Harris