Jane got the last of the plantings done. I got the UV filter fixed on the fish pond.
And if you wonder why the Scribometer hasn’t moved, it’s because after Jane being sick, and now that she’s getting well, —even though I kept writing through the worry and the upset, it’s not up to my standard. I thought of throwing out everything I’ve done and starting over, and then I started reading it and then my fingers began to twitch, and there we are: a rolling deep rewrite, and a really, really good feeling about what I’m doing.
woo hoo Carolyn!
I am so glad to hear the story is going well!
I have moved out of my beloved office to the front of the house where I now have air conditioning, since Russ was home for four days. (AC in, fixed water pipe, fixed yard stuff, fixed other things. Poor guy — wish we had less work or he had more time. Or both!)
~ Happy dance!! ~
So happy to hear the story is going well; happy for you and selfishly happy for me. I just started reading Foreigner again, so it’ll be some time before I’m ready to read the new book…probably. I tend to just burn through your books, but 11 left to go after Foreigner? I think you’ll beat my time. 😀
You’re too much of a perfectionist. It’s got to flow right and have that melody and meter. — not to worry, it’ll be worth waiting for.
Make that, “You’re too much of a perfectionist to settle for second best. . .” it’s been a long night.
Lol—my motto is “write garbage and edit brilliantly.” Write anything to fill the white space, then go back with your brain engaged and make it work. 😉
I love that attitude towards writing. It’s a shame so many people decide to either fear or hate editing. Personally, I love both from the exciting flow of the story to the chance to make the wording closer to what I imagined.
It’s hard to convince new writers that this is an art form and something you have to practice to get better at the work. Reading every ‘about writing’ book, article and blog is not going to help until you do the work, expect to make mistakes and learn from them.
I’m still working on the ‘learning’ part.
Excellent motto! And it’s good to hear that the writing is working for you again — good for you and good for all of us readers out here.
Congratulations all round then. I get that itch at work but sadly it’s been months since I could scratch it. I’m waiting for someone to give me some real work to get my teeth into. What I need is a serious and complicated software project..but no-one seems able to come up with one. It drives me mad when they do this. Our department would rather let us drift than give us a ‘home grown’ project because some other department might suddenly wake up and put in a proper request.
http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Idle
A line I used to deliver to my students regarding typos and errors in reports: “If you didn’t care to re-read it, having written it, why should I read it once?”
I feel somewhat the same way about an acquaintance of mine (I will not say, friend) claiming to publish first drafts because they’re just fine and that nobody ever changes it. Too holy to edit.
Ha. In a pig’s eye. I doubt this person ever reads the copy to find out what’s been done to the sacred prose…since this person is too good to reread it before sending it in.
It’s unfortunate how people like this influence others into believing this is the way a professional works, too. It’s worse for someone who is self-publishing. I know some don’t edit before they publish and rely on the readers telling them the mistakes, and then re-posting a better version. I don’t read to correct someone else’s problems. I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect at least minimal editing!
I’ve run into a lot of that sort of deathless prose in ebooks — a perfectly good idea so poorly written that I can’t get through the first chapter. I delete them. I reject the notion that I should be responsible for what amounts to doing the editing for them!
I love your motto for the assumption that self-editing is routine and essential; I believe that it is. I also love the way it shrugs off “page fright” (nowadays, with computers, “screen fright”!) that makes us hesitate before we plunge in. We should just write, write junk if that’s what comes out; it doesn’t matter in this first draft. It can be pulled together after it’s written. Very anxiety-reducing!
Watching your work rhythms here, I see you don’t do a total second-draft rewrite kind of thing; you must edit as you go. The finished books are always smooth and easy.
It’s what I call a ‘rolling rewrite’…not my term. You stop where you are, go back to a certain point, revise, and then keep going once you catch up to where you were. Unless you get the bug to do it all again. This is where the brilliant ideas come from: the reconsideration.
My word for anybody who thinks the readers should do the editing for them because they’re too wonderful to do it is ‘arrogant.’ I have typos or glitches get past me, but I try. I try really hard. It’s just that sometimes what you meant to say is so vivid it overrides what’s on the paper.
Oh, very applicable to computer programming, CJ. I always write with ‘whoever comes after me’ in mind. Far too many programmers think for the moment. The motto I use is ‘Remember, the idiot that reads the source next is probably you‘. Not quite the same for literature but the basic premise is. Someone else has to understand what you write otherwise you’ve wasted your time.
I had one of the best compliments on my programming after I retired. The person who took that package over said it was exactly as he would have written it. I liked to keep it all straight line and very simple but that didn’t stop me using some of the exotica hidden in the back of the manuals.
By the way:It’s finally turning into a lovely evening here – how is the day looking for you?
😀
Your kind of weather: morning of 47, high today of 75. It’s been a cool summer and downright cold spring. We’re going to Crater Lake soon, and the snow is still taller than cars in the parking lot, so I hear.
I just re-checked: LOTS of melt-out in the past 3 weeks, but still impressive for mid-July. Webcams near the Visitors Center:
http://www.craterlakelodges.com/press-room-247056252-818_1394.html
Snow, still? Nice. Mind you – we had too much of it this winter. Nearly brought the country to a halt in December. Losing the sun here now – I hope it gives you guys a good Saturday 🙂
It’s been up to 113.5 and now down to 111.9 at 4:47pm CDT.
That’s gruesome.
Having lived there much of my life, I can say I truly sympathize. It’s a beautiful spring and fall and not bad winter, but July and August are hard months.
Woo-hoo, on the progress with your book. — I hope for time to read the earlier books in the Foreigner series.
—–
I wish I could be concise. I always seem to want to put a lot in, fiction or not. (At least I don’t run on and on like one person whose business writing I had to enter or edit, years ago.)
My inner editor and my inner writer have trouble getting along. That inner editor wants rewrites and cuts, often. The inner writer gets a love affair going with certain passages when I write fiction or poetry, but likewise knows if something isn’t quite right and does want a rewrite too…but gets nervous about losing some imagined gem of brilliant writing by so doing. Nevertheless, rewrite and edit.
It helps a lot to have someone else proof and edit. I’m lucky in that I’m a good proofer, if I’m not too tired or rushed. I know to take the time and actually process it, when proofing. I can usually catch things in my own writing, but even so, I miss there more than when I’m checking someone else’s writing.
My main problem, aside from time available these days, seems to be getting stuck on where to go once I get to a certain point in the story; or not to have a story fully developed to begin with. So I have lots of odds and ends in my drafts or ideas folder, and few things finished. — With poetry, I have a problem keeping in rhyme and meter, something I’m going to have to work at, to strive for.
However, I’ve noticed that in the past couple of months, some bits and pieces that I had thought were separate story ideas or fragments, seem to be coalescing together. I think I’m in for another object lesson in how to keep all the ideas from either flying out in all directions or clumping into a big ball, and how to keep on one track, instead of being either overwhelmed by so many possibilities, or not being able to finish a project. …Hmm, I’m usually okay writing posts in stream-of-consciousness, but my inner editor is saying that this paragraph is a messy run-on. That means, among other things, I should refrain from posting when I’m too tired.