Editing Galore

I'm certainly not charting new territory here, but I am discovering how real the writing process it. Not that writing is new to me; I've been doing it most of my life. But it's mostly been marketing and advertising copywriting, with the occasional article or short story thrown in here and there. But this is the real deal. A novel. The cornerstone of literature. The big time. The Show.

The pain in certain parts of my body, including my brain.

I have now entered the agony phase, the one that makes or breaks authors, decides whether what they've written actually sees the bookstore shelves. I'm referring, of course, to editing -- the absolute worst part of writing.

It's hard to dissect your own words. It just is. Try as I might, I cannot detach myself from my own work. So I had Stephanie read through the whole thing since she hadn't seen but a few pages and didn't have the emotional attachment I do. Plus, she's really good at character and plot development. This is the same woman who can almost always figure out what happens next on "24."

After she made her neatly placed red marks on the pages, I then made her corrections, incorporated a few of my own, and printed it out again (at Office Depot, of course; I wasn't wasting pricing ink jet paper on 300+ pages). And I started the process all over again.

Now, thank to countless hours spent sipping capps at Java Journey, I am about halfway through the second run through, still finding mistakes neither of us caught and making changes to the storyline. I'm feeling very George Lucas-y.

So you want to write a book, eh? Get laid off from your job first, so you'll have plenty of spare time.