Liz and I had our second editting session tonight, and this one went...
well, it didn't go "faster" since we spent almost the same amount of time working on it, but as we got many more pages done, I think it does count as faster.
Anyway, we got a lot of work done.
I've learned a few things about myself, and about editting, in the last two weeks.
The first, and most important thing I've learned is that it helps immensely to go into an editting session with my sense of humor intact. I shudder to think what a bruising my ego would take if I took my own mistakes and typos personally. Actually, in a way, it is a very funny process. Liz and I have both discovered "bad writing habits" that we have. Liz has a predeliction for using dashes, and I've an annoying fondness for the phrase "gave him a look".
I also discovered, much to my horror, that I have borrowed the grammatical atrocity "took and went" from Louisa slang. "She took her apprentice and went to the island." Back in my hometown, the phrase "my mamma, she took and went to the store" would have raised no eyebrows at all. It is, however, one of the phrases most likely to send me into convulsive shivers (right up there with "fixin' to get ready")
Liz and I've gotten very handy with the red-pen and we bleed rather profusely over our manuscript. I've gone through one red pen already, and I'm very relieved to have found a new brand of pen that I like very much. I bought a whole box of them, and I hope that a dozen pens will last me a while (provided, of course, that I don't lose them.)
We cut Chapter One down by almost 500 words (about a page for those of you to whom word count makes no signifigance), mostly adjectives, adverbs, and people smiling at each other. Bad Hall habit, that. We're so used to having to indicate emotions during the Hall that every other sentence seemed to be "Loria did this and smiled at her husband. He smiled and said that." Ug. Too many deliriously happy people in the novel. But we cut it down a LOT and I hope it reads a little less revoltingly cutesy now.
I'll read it through again tomorrow and see how it flows now.
Another thing I've learned is that if one is out of breath reading a sentence out loud by the end of the sentence, that sentence is probably much too long and should be cut up into smaller sentences. We had to break up many such monstrosities of clause and phrase tonight. I am in dire need of learning to use periods instead of commas.
The third thing I learned, although I did not exactly learn it tonight, is that editting is a lot of work. A lot, a lot. More than I really thought it would be. And I just don't think I can keep up a word-count on the second novel and edit at the same time. I don't want to get out of the habit of writing, but I just don't think I can do it. For one thing, the second novel is much darker and grimmer than the first, and switching between moods is difficult. Secondly, editting is so much work that my writing is coming out lifeless and flat. Which doesn't help anything.
I think I will still write if I am particularly inspired, but I believe, at least for the time being, that I will table the word count until the first re-draft is complete.
Sense of humor: very important. It hurts a little less to be slashing something you wrote to bits if you can giggle hysterically about the slaughter of punctuation while you do it.
And just to set the record straight:
1) Of the twenty-ish pages we edited last night, all but two were originally written by KT, so more of her quirks showed up than mine. My turn is coming.
2) I'm fairly certain KT is not alone in the "giving him a look" camp.
3) As horrified as KT was about the "took and went" thing, we only found two instances of it. It's not like she pulled it out every time anyone went anywhere.
4) In case it wasn't clear, it's both of us, not just KT, who has some leftover Hall issues. We both seem compelled to stick a facial expression or other emotive response at the end of every other sentence. (smiled, scowled, grinned, laughed, eyes widened in horror...) And our dialog shows definite signs of Hall influence in that about every other sentence includes a reference to the person they're talking to. It's a vital part of confusion reduction on the Hall, but face-to-face, people rarely use the name of the person they're talking to.
5) And lest you think that my only awful writing habit was a fondness for dashes (which, I might add, I started using with this novel as an attempt to wean myself off the Hall habit of excessive ellipses) I'll tack on a couple of my more annoying traits, since KT was being nice: For some reason, I seem compelled to do things - especially adjectives, but sometimes whole clauses - (look there are those dashes!) in pairs. The people were "open and friendly." The hug was "warm and comforting." And nothing just happens. Everything, everything, everything that happens has to happen "suddenly." Or, on a few occasions, "slowly."
Sense of humor. Very important. Editing is a lot more work that I thought it would be, too - but it's not actually as painful as I thought it might be. Grammatical quirks and bad writing habits aside, I'm still enjoying the story. There's something good here. It just needs polishing.
And for every time I read an awkward sentence and wince, there's a moment where we snap it into shape and I find myself filled with pride.
This is our work. And by the gods, it's worth doing.
Posted by: Liz on January 18, 2003 10:02 AM