Personally, I love editing because it's where the story begins to take shape. Yes, it's also the hardest part. But, in the end, the rewards outweigh the headaches. When you've got a finished book staring at you, you'll realize it wasn't so tough.
I'm 82,000 words into my third and final draft of a novel I started two years ago, last month. And once I got through the first draft, the story began telling itself. I just need to get out of the way with my hangups and self-doubt.
A book I highly recommend for the editing phase is Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. It helped me with my first novel, and I'm re-reading it and learning new habits that are making the process smoother. Matt teaches in an MFA program in Arizona, which is my dream job. I want to teach writing in the UK.
Best of luck, Hayden. Believe in yourself. You've gotten this far already.
Thank you for such a thoughtful and useful comment, I'll make sure to give it a read because it's a bit of a headache this bit. I think a lot of what was wrong the other day was that I was trying to edit and move around some chapters that just weren't working, so it was easier to rewrite them and edit them from there.
After hacking at it there's a lot I've removed and for good reason so it's a lot less daunting now - better to have a shortened and tighter read than worrying about being at a word count I know I have to exceed. I'll pop your suggestion on my metaphorical fridge fire those times I can't see the woods for the trees.
You can call yourself a writer, Hayden.
Personally, I love editing because it's where the story begins to take shape. Yes, it's also the hardest part. But, in the end, the rewards outweigh the headaches. When you've got a finished book staring at you, you'll realize it wasn't so tough.
I'm 82,000 words into my third and final draft of a novel I started two years ago, last month. And once I got through the first draft, the story began telling itself. I just need to get out of the way with my hangups and self-doubt.
A book I highly recommend for the editing phase is Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. It helped me with my first novel, and I'm re-reading it and learning new habits that are making the process smoother. Matt teaches in an MFA program in Arizona, which is my dream job. I want to teach writing in the UK.
Best of luck, Hayden. Believe in yourself. You've gotten this far already.
Cheers.
Jason
Thank you for such a thoughtful and useful comment, I'll make sure to give it a read because it's a bit of a headache this bit. I think a lot of what was wrong the other day was that I was trying to edit and move around some chapters that just weren't working, so it was easier to rewrite them and edit them from there.
After hacking at it there's a lot I've removed and for good reason so it's a lot less daunting now - better to have a shortened and tighter read than worrying about being at a word count I know I have to exceed. I'll pop your suggestion on my metaphorical fridge fire those times I can't see the woods for the trees.