Editing Blues

So, I put off editing Gwendamned for a good 3 weeks. The first week was intentional, the last two were not so much. In truth, for things to be done ideally, I would not look at Gwendamned for another couple of months, let alone weeks, in order to get some distance from it before coming back to edit it. But, that's not a luxury I really have at the moment. Since I have someone waiting to read this I feel the need to get it done sooner than later. Also, though I know it's a crazy dream, and may not be all that plausible I'd really like to have a book in print before I'm 30 (I know it's a stupid and arbitrary goal, but hey, it's been a secret dream of mine for quite a few years now). If I didn't have someone interested in reading a novel of mine already, I would consider getting something in print before August of 2012 an impossibility. I know that the time from a publishing house purchasing a novel to getting it in print can take up to and over a year, let alone the time it generally takes to submit and get rejected quite a few times before you even find a publisher who is interested in it.

But, because I've got a small publisher interested in at least reading it (with admittedly no other promises) I feel like that jump-start might be able to get me to print before August 2012. But, I recognize that it's still a long shot.

Oh, well, dreams are dreams and I will do my damnedest to make this one a reality, but if I don't make my completely arbitrary and really not too terribly important time limit, so be it.

Anyway, random temporal goals aside. This editing thing is kind of a drag. Of course, I only say that because right now I'm doing the most boring possible part of the editing process. I'm creating a spreadsheet. Yes, you read that right a spreadsheet. After poking about on the interwebs I came across a few helpful posts about manuscript editing and came across the supposedly useful tactics of spreadsheet editing and the shrunken manuscript. They seem viable and I am giving them a shot. Of course, what I really want to do is take Holly Lisle's course "How to Revise Your Novel" but that's a five month course and I want this done before that. (Remember the whole arbitrary deadline I mentioned earlier?) So, yeah, I will take Holly's course but with one of my other finished manuscripts. I do have a few to chose from. Heh.

So, as someone who doesn't even plot much, this whole spreadsheet-as-way-of-editing thing is kind of a novelty. I've found that to do it properly I have to go through and make chapters. Or rather, I don't have to, but they turn out to be kind of useful. I never write with chapters in mind. I just write scenes. It's a bit odd to think about my books in terms of chapters, but I think it might be quite useful as an editing tool even if I don't keep them in the long run (though I might keep them anyway).

I'm looking forward to the actual editing bit. But the spreadsheet making is kind of a pain in the ass. Yet I already see the value in it. I've learned one very important lesson already and found something that's going to take some serious work to fix. My novel has no obvious timeline. I have no idea how long a period of time the book takes place over. It could be anywhere from 3 months to 2 years. I think it's more like a year and a half but that's just a notion in my head, the book really doesn't make it clear at all. I should probably sort that out.

Well, that's all for now as I have to get back to editing. But I thought I would just throw that out there. I might not be back until after the holidays, but I hope everyone enjoys them. Happy Solstice!