Woe is Editing

What’s your favorite part of writing a novel?

Maybe it’s the plotting and researching. Perhaps it’s getting stuck in and putting words on the page. Or maybe you love the editing phase—tweaking and reworking your novel until it’s perfect.

For me, I love writing the first draft. When all the planning finally becomes a complete manuscript, and you get to bring your ideas and characters to life. Right now, I’d give anything to be doing just that.

Sarah and I have been in the process of editing our manuscripts since April. That’s a solid three months of reworking our novels. For the past month or so I’ve been working on Darkness, Set us Free. And I’ve been stuck in the same chapter for two weeks.

Honestly, it feels like I’m trapped in an endless cycle of editing. Re-editing. Then editing some more. And as every chapter drags on, I find myself less and less motivated to keep going.

Usually, I don’t mind the editing process—I enjoy streamlining our paragraphs, fixing the plot holes, and getting the dialogue between characters just right. But these past weeks have taken me right to the end of my tether. I’m overthinking every sentence, second-guessing my changes, and agonizing over every single word. Consequently, this round of edits has been painfully slow.

But there’s light at the end of the (very dark, very long) tunnel. I’m oh so close to finally finishing the edits on the chapter I’ve been stuck on. And I’m almost halfway through the novel. So, hopefully, only a couple more weeks until we can put these manuscripts down for a few months and work on something else. The first draft of a new novel. And I can’t wait.

-A

Sorry, everyone. No LabLife this week. I’ve spent most of my time grant writing and teaching, and I don’t want to bore you with the ins and outs of making PowerPoint presentations!

-A