Thursday, June 9, 2011

Back to work...

Now that we're on summer break I keep telling myself this is my one chance to get a lot of work done on my book. Not surprisingly, I find it really hard to get a chance to sit down and work on it these days. For one, I can only work when Sophia is napping. That gives me about 3-4 hours a day. And a few hours before bedtime. During naps I'm usually busy taking care of more important things, teaching Elijah, showering, exercising, you name it, I always have something else I should be doing.

But, I could just kick myself for not working on my book. I mean, hello, I wrote a book, I should probably finish it, right? It doesn't help that all I have left to do is edit the thing. Probably the most important part, but also the hardest. When I'm doing the actual writing it comes pretty easy. And it's never hard to find time to just sit down and create, because you feel like your mind is going to explode if you don't get it all out on paper. Or sometimes, in my case, you might forget it if you don't hurry up and get it down.

Editing though? Editing is work, not fun. Work. So far I'm midway through chapter three, so I have a long way to go, but at least I'm getting it done. Yesterday I sat down at the computer with a purpose. I chose to sit at my desktop computer in the kitchen because it doesn't have internet, so no getting distracted! I got a comfy chair and a caffinated beverage and got to work. Of course I didn't get too far before Sophia was right beside me pulling all the pens and pencils out of my pencil holder, but she was being good so I just let her be.

Basically right now I'm just going through all my word documents and making all the changes that need to be made. I've already been through most of my printed version, so I've spotted most of my typos and sentences that just don't work. When I'm done going through it all myself I've been sending my chapters to a friend who is doing my editing for me and she points out all the things that I've missed. Apparently I use the word "that" way too many times when it is not necessary! Anyway, she sends back to me looking like this...

IMG_0508

I always feel like a kid who got a bad grade when I see all this red! Dangit! That was a particularly troublesome page though. It's all for a good cause right?

So, that's where we are right now. After I finish editing I'm not sure what's going to happen. Of course I would love to be published and sometimes I even start feeling like it's actually good enough to be published, which is crazy I know. But the reality is that it's not very likely. Still it's been a lot of fun and I'm not going to let that stop me!

2 comments:

  1. "a friend"?!?!?!?!
    hee hee

    I think the tough part is when you are so close to the writing, sometimes one overlooks things because you don't read for detail. Also I was my high school newspaper's editor... like the person who edited all the articles. They would be dripping in red, people hated giving me their stuff.

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  2. Ill make sure to drop all kinds of needless "that"s on your "friend" when I see her.

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