I've done a huge pile of work-related work yesterday. Then I started editing "First Blood". Note to self - editing 10k a day is bad for your sanity.
Today I got up early (on a Sunday. I'm a hero), and edited 20k of "First Blood".
That means that not only has my sanity taken a major hit, I'm also halfway through "First Blood", which has 62k words. All this so I can manage the remaining edits during a completely crazy work week. Somehow. I'm not sure how Barbara powered through 160 pages of the text on one day...she's just that good. :)
The edits are 95% "fiddly shit" as I call it - pure line-editing and having found a better word in the meantime. The 5% percent is stuff that I could have discovered with more in-depth research. I guess one never stops learning.
Now I'll have to go back to "work work" and earn my keep there. Apart from those two, I read two books for Elisa Rolle's Rainbow Awards (and both were pretty good). I'm done there, so at least there won't be frantic activity on that count in the next couple weeks.
I'll see you soon on the flipside with more interesting musings than wordcounts.
Maybe one thing - I got a long, awesome email expressing gratitude for my writing, which is always amazing and does help with the moments where I go "can't be bothered, am going to bed."
Thanks guys, for your support. It makes a huge difference.
Now I'll grab a book and a nap on the couch - I'll have to do a load of work tonight, but late afternoon is my "dead zone" anyway, and nothing gets me through editing exhaustion like a book and 30 minutes shuteye.
When I read your blogs I forget you are German, living in England. Shuteye, flipside and so many of the things you say make me forget.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy your editing, I've been doing my own, but I can't imagine getting through so much in one day. I have an old MS with so many POV changes, my head is spinning. UGH! Adverbs galore. Want to chuck it but I like the story.
Anyway, have a good week. Had to comment on your phrases, they sound so American.
I do talk a lot to Americans - and then I steal their words. MUAHAHA. (Okay, sanity has been better).
ReplyDeleteNo, I try to stay under 10k a day if I can... otherwise it seriously hurts my brain. 4-6k is doable (when I do SF, for example). 10 is bad. 20k is super-bad. But anything to meet the deadline.
Have a good week!
If I can get 5K a day, I'm doing well, because I keep wanting to change so much. It's a never ending job, isn't it? Everything seems that it can be better.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 10K is terrible. You'll fry your brain, eyes cross, hair falls out and you begin to babble incoherently. Not good on relationships.
Head up this week! Forge on.
It's not so bad - the edits I've done for First Blood so far are between 1-5 edits per page. Some repetition, some style, a sentence cut and added here and there.
ReplyDeleteSpecial Forces has very solid bits with hardly any editing, and bits that I have to edit three times. It would sometimes be easier and faster just to rewrite whole passages. The tangled POV and inconsistent character voice doesn't help.
So, it really really depends how good the original text is. "First Blood" kicks the shit out of "Special Forces" in the consistent quality of writing, no doubt.
TCaS is a different spiel again - here I'm editing for the plot. And *that* is a complete bastard. Developing the spy arch and planting the clues and developments in the right order with the right spacing... not easy at all.