It has been a while since I have posted anything new, so I think it is time to update anybody who might be listening to what is going on. I have been back working on the edits of my novel ‘The Lost Prophet’. Unfortunately as with some writers editing for me is like a trip to the dentist for some people.
I have been working on my edits of this book for close to eight months now, I am now close to half way through the second draft and it has taken me almost as long to get this far as it did to write the entire first draft. This has caused me to ponder what it is about the editing process that makes it so difficult for me.
There is a beauty in writing, an adrenaline rush as you create and form a world at your fingertips. the power inherent in fiction writing, or any writing for that matter is a heady thing. It allows you to spread your wings and watch the landscape open up below you. I always envision the final scene from “The Neverending Story” where Falkor the Luck Dragon flies out over the world and the story is written all over again, or the end of ‘Starchild’ where the world is remade in the image of the stories.
By contrast editing does feel like a trip to the dentist. It is necessary and good for you, but you spend the entire time being lectured by someone about how you are doing everything wrong. If writing brings you to the highest peaks then editing has the potential to drop you into the lowest valleys. Having to take apart what you have already write and analyze it by the numbers
and structure. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a numbers guy, I enjoy patterns and structure, but I have never been able to get behind the editing progress. I am striving to build my enjoyment of it, I want to see the patterns of the words and make them sing to the rafters. Sometimes great moments in writing happen with inspiration on a blank page, but waiting for the inspiration to come and it would take
seventeen years just to write one novel. So I study my word choice, the way each character speaks, the imagery that I use to describe the places and the people, symbolism and mirroring, all of the things that place depth and meaning into the written word. I have to embrace this thing that makes me cringe, because if this is what I want to do then this is the best way to do it.