What's it like to edit?

So what’s it like to edit? Hmm, well I must say that going over your own work a million times over is one thing, but liking the changes you make is another. I have gone over my novels, I don’t know the exact number of times, but I can say that it’s been a lot. But here is the downfall that I have with all that, it’s me.

Yes, you, me, we all make mistakes and sometimes more than once. With the multitude of times I have been over my work, I’m still not happy. I change something here, a little there, and with every change that is made, there’s more room for flaws. I’m not a perfect writer by any means and I’ve needed help from time to time and still do. As of right now I’m in the process of getting a legit editor.

Let’s all face it. If you want your work to be perfect, you have to send it to the pros, and the cons of those pros is this, it isn’t cheap. And that’s where I’m at right now. Well trying not to stray too far from the topic, back to me going over my own stuff.

I don’t know how many times that I have changed character names, the way the come off, or removing a side story completely to build up to something more with the main characters love interest.  But characters is one thing, we all know it’s about location, location, location. Which that’s something I changed the least but I think I’m personally happy with the choices I’ve made with it.

Still to this very moment, when I read over my works for a 100^th time, there are things that I want to change. I’d say it is as we go along through time, our tastes change and we perceive things, events, ideas, just a little bit different than we did originally. And that’s what I’ve been doing as well with the Within Series. I just need to stop touching it and finish the process of getting an editor.

So what I have to say about, “What’s it like to edit,” is this, “Another pair of eyes that are not of your own, may perceive things in a different light, showing you a way you never thought possible.” Editing your work is one thing, having a helping hand, another set of eyes, always seem to help me.

Reality & Expectations

I’m going to go a bit off my normal way of blogging to today and go about something a little different. I may stray from time to time, off the beaten path, over the hills, and even maybe to Grandma’s house, but I’ll try to keep that to a minimum. Today I want to go over something I that can be seen every single day and effects all of us and that is “Patience”.

Patience is something that, I’ve experienced personally, has went from a virtue to almost non-existent. In this day and age, now is the moment, we’re living in it, and everything we want has to be at that moment in time, now. But good things come to those that wait, so they say. I for one, don’t like to wait, just like the majority of the human population.

With the mentality of this age, ordering what we want online, not having to go out and pick it up, or purchase and download, it is all in the now. That’s the speed of life I guess but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Unless there’s some sort of time machine that I don’t know about.

So with all this patience that I’m lacking, I’m now slapped with two things. Those things are “Reality” and “Expectations”.

Reality vs. Expectations: Round 1, Fight!

My expectations in everything I do are higher than probably what I should actually build myself up to. Great expectations can be achieved quickly, knocking my patience right out the door. But with great expectations comes great financial backing.

Let me stray over toward the Within Series, my brain child since I was a teenager. I can launch that sucker in a month or so if I had the money to plop down for it. Big shocker here, I’m not a wealthy bloke that can do just that. So instead I have to cut corners and find other methods to continue on my quest of having a novel published. And all that takes time and patience.

Reality vs. Expectations: Round 2, Fight!

So the reality of all this is that I need to wait, which means others will have to wait as well. I may have had the FB Within Page pushed too early. Oh well, it’s there, it makes me feel better, and now it’s time to work on it some more. I hope in the future, before I kick the bucket, that it will all come together the way I expect it to.

Everything takes time, even if I wish it didn’t, and though I want to rush things, I can’t. With other things in life I have noticed, if you rush something, there’s bound to be mistakes that you hadn’t anticipated. Take your time, ease into it, because sometimes you might want to look into the river before you jump in. You never know how deep it really is or isn’t.

…Fatality