Still Plugging Away…

“The editing process is going to take longer than you expect,” said Lynn, my writing coach. No kidding!! She also said she finds this step one of the most enjoyable. I agree. If you find taking one step forward and three steps backward enjoyable!

It’s been three months since I last posted on the progress of my novel, Nothing Really Bad Will Happen. I lost about 7,839 hours playing with ChatGPT (my new best friend) but our relationship has now cooled somewhat. I’m still using AI (artificial intelligence) to help jumpstart my brain and critique completed work. But I am no longer asking it to “improve” or “add emotion” to everything I write!

I do like asking for a critique though. Rather than simply rewording the selection, or perhaps adding “embellishment” as my Beta reader/friend Doreen, calls it, I am learning to improve my writing by reading the reasoning behind each critique.

So—where am I now? As of today, I think I am about halfway through the developmental editing stage. There are a lot of people in my story… and they do a lot… and there’s a ton of historical info to address… and I included Every. Little. Detail. I needed to rework many of my chapters to reflect only one or two characters’ perspectives in order to make the story flow more smoothly. In some cases, this is easy. In most, however, it means days of agonizing rewriting.

But, I’m past the worst of it now and things are going more quickly. Whew! I must admit, it’s much better! I’m looking forward to getting the next twenty or so (!) chapters rewritten and then it’s on to line editing!

I’m going to call that stage “word economy.” The idea is to get your point across using the fewest number of words. Oh, yeah—and it has to be engaging for the reader. Maybe I should think of the words as money; I watch my pennies like a hawk. (Actually, that is kind of true—more words equals more pages, so more cost to print!)

You might wonder how I find time to do all this work. Easy answer—I have no life. No, that’s not true. Sometimes I babysit my grandkids. I do have a pretty structured schedule though. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. most days, I write, while I participate in my writers’ group Zoom call. It really does help to have a group of supportive people who can keep you on track and nag you into oblivion. Just kidding folks. Perhaps gentle nudging is a better term.

At 1 p.m. I make a half sandwich (ham and cheese on whole grain bread) which I eat while watching a recorded episode of Hoarders. Then, depending on the day, I either run some errands or go back to writing for a couple more hours. I get now why some writers become hermits!

It’s not a bad life, although I”m not sure what my husband thinks. You’ve heard of “football widows”? He’s more like a “writer’s widower.”

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m going to try and be better about updating this blog. After all, I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on my misadventures in writing! Thanks for joining me on this journey!