Mar 31 2009
Climbing the Editing Rock Wall
I’m sensing that, in these past two weeks, I actually have less time for things in my life. No, seriously. I mean that. I don’t even mean it metaphorically, or even symbolically. I mean it LITERALLY. My day no longer stretches the full 24 hours. My day is actually 7 hours long, and I sleep about 3 hours of that day, leaving me 4 hours to take care of EVERYTHING I need to take care of. It’s quite interesting, actually. Coffee and I have become more intimate.
This is to update you on why I’ve been out of the ‘house’ a little bit longer.
You readers out there, who keep checking on the blog to see what good ol’ Pierre, the Wretched Writer, has written up for your eyes and mind to feast on and calm your nerves and your literary insanity, check only to find NOTHING new…. THIS is why.
Because my days have shortened. My life has changed.
I am now a PUBLISHED author instead of an ASPIRING author, and I am feeling the changes.
That and this Wednesday I’ll be getting Lasik surgery on my eyes (remember the whole Navy thing? Yeah), but that’s a whole nother story. Yeah.
So my editor, the wonderful, spiffy, spunky Lee Morris had just sent me back an edit of my first chapter revision I had sent to her over the weekend, and I just have to say WOW…. I’m a busy man, ladies and gentlemen. Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
Busy. BUSY.
But I’m loving it. Don’t get me wrong.
Editing is a curious creature, fraught with funny pathways filled with melting clock faces and strange anomalies that defy logic and a structured frame of thought and cohesion, and yet seem to communicate clearly the direction to be taken. It’s literally one of the only things in this world that involves change but still keeps the general entity the same. (chuckles with a nose up…. Listen to me get all philosophical).
Editing gets a bad wrap, though, honestly. Some of us are terrified of it. It’s understandable.
The one piece of advice I can give you aspiring authors, though, is….
DON’T BE INTIMIDATED.
Like climbing a rock wall, see? First off, you don’t constantly look up and see how far you have to go. DON’T do that. That’ll kill you right there. You’re constantly badgered by the stress of having so much left to go…. And your muscles are getting tired.
Instead, focus on the particular ledge you’re trying to grab on with your foot. Or your hand. Grab it. After you’ve grabbed it, scan your immediate vicinity for another handhold, something to advance you farther up. When you find it, work on latching onto that handhold or ledge. One step at a time.
Do NOT look up. Ever. Look at the wall in front of you and keep looking for the closest handholds you can find and keep working upward. Just don’t look up.
You’ll make it up the editing rock wall. I promise.
Now I’ve got to get back to work people. I only have about an hour left in my day. And it’s only 9:17 AM. Cheers.
In this post you talk about not looking UP while climbing a rock wall or mountain of publishing and all the work that has to be done, not getting overwhelmed by it. Yet you don’t say anything about looking DOWN! and all the things that can go wrong and prolong the process of getting published
Aaaaaaaaaah, yes, very, very, very, very good point and a topic to bring up at some point….
Of course, regarding solely the specific issue of editing for publication, looking DOWN! can actually be beneficial, because you can see just how far up you’ve gone :-).
Now, if you’re talking about the grand scale of publication from the publisher’s point of view (feel free to chime in here, Lee, if you like), looking DOWN! can get kinda stressful, I imagine. So many things can go wrong.