Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

So yes, I have 43 problems to solve in my rewrites. 43 questions or comments left to myself in the text. Some are thankfully minor, a note to self to change a sentence, or even a word. (Yes, one word changes can be a nightmare, just let me have my delusions!) Others are deceptively simple, things like “introduce this idea earlier” or “explain this custom sooner”, but what does that truly mean? It means finding the right place to add this information, and the right way to do it, in a way which causes as little distortion in the text around it as possible, and avoids (you hope) unintended textual consequences.

That, my friends, is a problem to be carefully solved.

Then there are issues with changing language around one topic through the entire book to make it consistent. Copy and replace does not fix this one. Thankfully I think I only really have two of those, and the topics are minor, so I think it can be done with a minimum of fuss, but this like so many other problems leads the writer back and forth through the book, looking at all the offending instances in need of unification. Cycling back and forth through the text like that can make you a) snowblind to other problems as you read parts of the text over and over and your brain just goes blank; or contradictorily, b) sidetrack you as you notice other issues as you travel through the manuscript, and deviate to fix them first. That is editing hell. I do not want to go there. Discipline will be required.

The true problems are where I’ve identified a need for plot enhancement or character development that is deeply grounded in the drama of the piece, a drama I have concluded, and how to make changes that enhance, rather than disfigure, what I have already created. This is where whole chunks of text can be potentially thrown out and entire passages or chapters rewritten. On my timetable, I really don’t want to go there unless it is absolutely necessary. Sometimes the simplest solution is a small cut, remove the item that creates ripples in the story that I the writer ignored when the reader will be waiting frustratedly for a resolution that never comes. Life is like that, fiction tends to close the loop more often: because it is pleasing. I have one of these that I have so far noticed, and wouldn’t you be surprised to learn it was from a moment when I deviated from my Really Detailed Plan™? It totally made sense at the time, I just didn’t continue and develop/integrate it properly. You’re not surprised? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

And I have my previously mentioned large fix, to change both a quandary, and a solution for my MC. I think I have it, but it will consist in part of upicking and restitching some sections of work that I was very glad to be done with, and thought functioned very well. I don’t want to mess with them, but I must, because that was where I noticed the problem in the first place. Sigh.

My deadline for these 43 problems is one month away, or four weekends. That’s a bit scary. Having no choice, I shall jump in and start knocking them out as best I can.

The real danger is this: how many new problems shall I discover as I solve the 43? Will the number climb rather than descend? This is what happened in The Killer and The Dead, or rather, that is what I allowed to happen. I am determined this time around to not go down that road.

This is editing. For to me rewrites are edits, as you are refashioning the script and story into a new shape you hope is more pleasing. This is what it means to rework a manuscript, to try to make it better, and these are only the problems I see, not what others will notice as glaringly obvious. This is part of the inevitable process of writing a novel, and without it the novel remains unfinished, unformed. I had such a lot of fun writing and editing the language (and some content) as I went, I can only hope I find the fun in this process too, or at least find the satisfaction that can be had in progress.

Wish me luck! I already have one upside—weekly updates are virtually written for me, with a new counter I can continue to fail to represent as a bar chart/graphic! Can I bring the numbers down enough each week to make my deadline? I’d better, hahaha!

Until next time, I hope you can all find the fun, or the satisfaction, in whatever you are doing. Be well.