Wednesday, December 21, 2016

editing over Christmas break


One of the things that I missed most when I started school was having free time to write. Last year, while I was working (and not in school) I finished NaNoWriMo, and then over the summer, I took another look at my baby first draft, and thought this is not right. So I re-wrote the whole book (the worst/best idea of my life), but when September hit, I had no time left to edit. The second messy draft of Seeing Voices has been hanging over my head for a long time, and now that I'm finished with my exams, I've been diving back through the pages that I wrote this year.

Here's a few little snippets of what I've been finding as I read through my notes again...


Clearly, I wasn't that happy with the state of my writing

Oh, apparently I found something I liked

Me on Oct. 16th had no patience for anything

I wish I could remember how late at night it was when I was writing these comments...

Did I forget how to use the question mark on my laptop?? who knows.

Do you ever find hidden gems like these when editing your second or third (or fifth) drafts?? Wanna share some of your favourites?

xx,
Olivia




18 comments:

  1. You got this! Editing is something I'm kinda not looking forward to, but right now I'm just trying to actually finish my book. *sigh* It was so funny to read the snippets XD

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    1. Autumn, you go girl!! You can do this! And editing is really fun - you have lots to look forward to! ;)

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  2. Oh my gosh, Seeing Voices is the most perfect name for a novel ever. Seriously the best title! And I have the horrible habit of writing my first chapter and then editing it and rewriting it so much so that I don't actually get to chapter two. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS. But these comments are gold, and I promise you're not alone. Novel editing is like a full time job, yo. I've missed your posts! Glad you're back. :)

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    1. ERIN. You are rocking my world <3 I have title anxiety and this is just wonderful. Thanks for commenting!!

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  3. I want to do this some day. I really like editing but writing a novel seems overwhelming! You can do this!

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    1. Vanessa, it's less overwhelming than it seems! (at least if you have a plan before you start!) You could totally pull it off! Thanks for the encouragement :) I'm doing more editing right now!

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  4. Ahahaha, that first comment about "daring each other to do things". XD

    I haven't edited in a while so no, I don't have any, but thanks for sharing yours! Those are hilarious. :)

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    1. SO ASHAMED OF MYSELF. What things? Good things? Fun things? things that might have gotten them arrested? WHO KNOWS?? Not me, apparently...

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  5. Heh, your notes to yourself sound like mine! I've been printing out/reading through my ninth draft and a lot of the notes are just me underlining things and writing NO. So that's...probably not gonna help me later. But whatever.

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    1. Aimee, I love it!! ;) I keep finding more and just laughing at myself. It makes me happy that I'm not the only one!

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  6. Oh yes yes I find marvellous calamities when editing.😂 It's actually hilarious though?!? Like sometimes I seriously wonder what my brain was DOING IN THAT SCENE. I have one scene where they started off eating ginger bread and then it morphed into cake and by the end they were buttering it and eating like bread, so literally no one knows what they were eating in that scene. I must've been super tired that day. haha. OH THE FUNNESS OF EDITING. (Good luck with it too!!)

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    1. Marvelous calamities... that's a good way to describe them! Your food scene sounds hilarious -- buttered ginger cake?? Maybe? :p Good luck to you, too!

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  7. Rereading your own drafts can be tough. For me the worst part comes when I start to get bored with my story (especially when it's still nowhere near finished). It's cool that you've found ways to make it fun--I love your notes!

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  8. Ahahaha, I'm cracking up! These are hilarious. XD Pretty sure my editing will look exactly like this, haha.

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  9. These are so funny to read! Your notes have so much character ;) The deaf one made me remember once when I had my paralyzed MC start walking around. In my defense, the MC wasn't always paralyzed in the book. Still, it was the one time when I kinda wanted to smack myself in the face...

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  10. Don't mind me I'm just going to catch up on all the amazing posts I've missed since the summer...

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  11. Just found your blog, going through all your posts because why not, and I have come to the conclusion that I love your blog! I will definately be sticking around. :)

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Comments from you make my day! ♥ True story.