Clarion Write-A-Thon! Donations are awesome!
Editing, so far, has not been what I thought it would be.
In fact, it's really been more of a complete re-write of everything I had before.
Barely a week in and I'm feeling a little bit daunted. In the span of a little over a month, I am suppose to re-write an entire 70,000 word novel? Well, technically it's possible. Technically, many things are possible. However, it'd be a Nano or worse quality, which is not what is intended for a second draft.
One of the furstrations I am running into of late is that no one seems to talk about the actual editing process of writing. Is this crazy amount of re-write and overhaul normal for editing a novel? Should I always expect this? Or is it just this particular book, which was written over three years and like pulling teeth and kept changing from one novel to, oh, four now? I can't say for sure because I don't know what the norm of editing is, if there is one.
Oh, everyone admits its there, that it must happen. But for the most part, what you hear about it is all "How to Write a Draft!" and then "How to Publish Your Awesome Finished Draft!" There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on how to make your first draft into your finished draft, it's all a bit smoke and mirrors and magic. Or maybe there is and I have been ignoring it since I lacked a first draft for so long. If anyone does know any good resources of people discussing second drafts, I would LOVE to read them.
Regardless, we'll see what gets accomplished. I live on the eternal hope that the NEXT segment will not need to be completely re-written but will be closer to edited instead and it will be easier and then I sprout five inches of height and become a supermodel.
Still, even if things aren't at the level of possible within the time frame I set for myself, the second draft is going well. Scenes are coming together with a great deal more strength. So far, I have completely re-vamped one characters and I am pleased. She has gone from a petty, self-centered, bitter aging lady to a sarcastic, amused, and clever aging lady. Against her, my main characters a much more interesting contrast without any of them becoming unsympathetic, which was a problem I hit in the first draft.
It is, however, doing the following:
Original Word Count: 6670
Word Count for the re-written same scenes: 7829
It's getting longer that's not right.
