| Author |
Message |
    
Nancy Mehl
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1690
Registered: 08-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 02:27 pm: |   |
I hate editing!
Seriously, been doing too much of it lately.
My novel, Malevolence, will be out through Zumaya Publications next year. The editor likes it, but felt I had too many incomplete sentences. She knew why I used them, for emphasis and voice, but felt that using them too much could actually soften their impact. I could definitely see her point, and so I did an edit before Zumaya's edit. Sheesh. Of course, I saw all kinds of other things, even though I'd been through the thing a gazillion times. So, that took me weeks to do.
Graven Images is being re-released through Timberwolf Press. I was only going to fix a couple of typos. Yeah, right! Of course, I'm seeing all kinds of other things. Graven Images was first released in 2001. I'm a better writer now than I was then. Besides all of the extra "thats" peppering the pages, there are other things I wouldn't do now. The editing is taking hours longer than I originally planned.
Have any of you read through your book - after you thought it was as perfect as you could make it - and been shocked by awkward passages or mistakes you didn't see when it was first published?
Nancy |
Donna Brown
Hunger Member
Post Number:
53
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 03:31 pm: | |
Yes, Nancy. I do the same thing all of the time. I'm in the process of shopping a novel now and every time I send out a partial I find myself editing - wondering why in the world I did some odd little thing I did, or worded something awkwardly and I think I'm a pretty good editor.
Donna |
Perry Comer
Unity Member
Post Number:
1334
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 03:39 pm: | |
editing a book you wrote more than six weeks ago is torture. Could it be that the brain works different with the passage of time?
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2934
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 03:41 pm: | |
Yes. Definitely. A reviewer I recently met will be reading Alley for review. It scared the daylights out of me because he reviews what I call "literary" fiction. I reread Alley just to further my humiliation and found a glaring typo plus things I would change if I could. I doubt we can ever get our work where we want it - perfect. |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1149
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 05:21 pm: | |
Nancy,
Isn't that WINTERWOLF PUBLISHING?? I am sure that you meant that, but got dyslexic in the process.
Claudia
(Message edited by Cltvcoyote on May 02, 2004) |
Nancy Mehl
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1692
Registered: 08-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 08:22 pm: | |
Yikes! Yes, I got my wolves mixed up! LOL!
(Shhhhh. Don't tell Kevin!)
Nancy |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
56
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 08:35 pm: | |
Nancy, I have trouble not marking up my copy of True Blue Forever when I do a reading.
Your wolf mixup was a hoot! Sounds like something I would do!
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage |
Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1475
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 05:32 am: | |
I'm wondering, myself, whether I want to go through the process of completely re-editing a novel I finished around a decade ago...irk. |
Kevin P. Grover
Unity Member
Post Number:
1159
Registered: 03-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 07:37 am: | |
Nancy,
Yes, I DID see it. But, it's no big deal. In fact, my coffee mug (some call it a bucket) has the Timber Wolf on it. So, no matter which genus of wolf you pick...you still get WWP. 
www.winterwolfpublishing.com |
Perry Comer
Unity Member
Post Number:
1335
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:04 am: | |
Editing is a pain but I find one of the most WONDERFUL things about editing a work written long ago is seeing how much you have grown as a writer. Yep, you look at something and say, "I can't believe I wrote that!" But instantly you see what is wrong with it and how to fix it. To me that feels pretty darn good.
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
Nancy Mehl
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1694
Registered: 08-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:07 am: | |
Uh,oh. Kevin saw my mistake but I guess I'm okay....(G)
Perry - You're right, but at some point we have to walk away and say enough. I can't seem to do that. I have a new one that my agent is waiting for, and I can't get to it. Gotta get this thing finished!
Joyce - LOL! I've got a book marked up quite a bit too. But at least I've shown up for all of my book signings! (Sorry, couldn't help it...(G))
Nancy |
Bill Nelson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
106
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:24 am: | |
Nancy,
At least you didn't say Werewolf Publishing.
I read once that a writer never quits re-writing a mss, you just give up at some point and say "that's it!"
bn |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
59
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 10:33 am: | |
Nancy, that was low but funny. 
Bill, told any abdominal lies lately? Hee hee . . . sorry, I couldn't help it either.
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage |
Bill Nelson
Wandering Member
Post Number:
109
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 01:37 pm: | |
You are a cold woman, Joyce.
Cold, cold, woman.
BN |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
64
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:47 pm: | |
Couldn't help it, Bill. That one gave me a real "belly laugh." 
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage
|
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