Is it ever done?

[eimarra]

Too tired to edit, really. I've been working on this story so long now. Major edit last week, then long crit this weekend for marfisk. Then back to the edits, based on her crit of mine. Up until after 12:30 last night, just trying to smooth out the rough spots, fix the easy stuff. Got up this morning, sat down at the computer, and saw this hard copy with Post-its sitting here, daring me to do anything about it. More than two hours, I'm starting my third cup of tea and almost ready to begin. I don't care now. I just want to get the words in, fill the holes, mend the problems that Mar saw. I don't care about art. It doesn't matter if I like the words. Do they work? If so, I can move on. I can print and mail this, get on with the next.

So, so tired.

If this is how I feel with a story that's 14k (likely to be over 15k when I get done here), how in the world does anyone manage a novel?

Comments

Arooo!!!

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. Hopefully it will be gold soon.

Re: Arooo!!!

[eimarra]

Thanks. And if you just knew how appropriate that subject line is. . .

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

Well, for one thing, you don't normally try to edit the whole frigging thing in one weekend :)

[eimarra]

But is editing 15k in two to three really so very different from Holly Lisle saying she edits her novels in two weeks?

And if you tell me one more time that I need to work up to the hard stuff -- well, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe conspire with Joey behind your back to make life difficult for you. ;-)

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

Turning around one edit pass on a novel in two or three weeks is pretty normal. Sandwiching three passes into that frame the way you did over the weekend isn't the norm. Sometimes it's necessary because of deadlines, but that's not the norm any more than you would normally turn around a short story that size in that length of time if you didn't have a deadline for it.

My own prejudice is that a 15-25K short story is about the hardest length to work with -- you have all the unity and coherence issues of a true short story, and all the layering and character development issues of a full novel. But that may be because I'm comfortable writing long or short but not in between...

[eimarra]

Well, but Holly only does one edit pass. So her one pass is probably equal to all the passes I was trying to squeeze in.

Short story deadlines . . . ah, yes, that one in two weeks that I haven't started writing for yet. Because Leilani and Ginger really isn't what they're looking for, I think. Yeah, that's on the list.

Anyway, once I woke up and got the music playing and the blood pumping, my attitude did change from "just get it done" to "it's already good; I want it to be better. It should be the best I can make it." And I'm not tired of the story any longer, which is good.

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

Holly is...um...not typical :)

It's good that you got the attitude in line. That's really the only way to address the problem :) I'll have to remember that soundtrack trick next time.

Have you looked at Zette's rewriting class? http://www.fmwriters.com/community/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=26&topic_id=146&mesg_id=146&listing_type=search#147

[eimarra]

But I don't want to be typical, either. I want to write as fast as Paperback Writer and Zette put together, and edit as fast as Holly, and be published in as many areas as Asimov. Failing that, I want to be me, which is reasonably atypical anyway.

That's the class that every time I look at it, I get overwhelmed by the number of posts and promise to come back to it later. *sigh* I suppose it's later, now. But not tonight. I did glance at the first step, and I think I've got that down. I know rewriting's important, and usually I enjoy it. Thanks for sending me the link. :)

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Oh.

You mean you want to be crazy. You aren't just stumbling into it by accident.

Well.

I still think you need to build up a good base of mileage before you go trying to sprint through marathons, but if you want to try for the insane levels, well, go for it.

It is kind of a long string, just loaded with good information. I'm still trying to digest most of it.

[eimarra]

I want to be crazy. I dream of being crazy. I'm not doing a very good job of it yet, but I am building to it. I just can't build to it by deciding to take little steps. I build by biting off way more than I can chew and failing by less each time to get it all done.

Whether it's going to work in the long run, I don't know. I still think I write best in spurts. I also think maybe I write better when I've had an idea gestating for a long time. "Blood Brother" is set in a world I thought of more than 2 years ago. I did some world building, in which I wrote a paragraph on how there was this one mad king in the past. Finally, I've started writing in it. I don't know that two-year waiting periods between getting an idea and actually acting on is going to work with trying to do those insane amounts of writing.

But I keep stumbling forward, pushing myself a bit more. I have so many stories I want to tell, and so little time to tell them. Never enough.