Monday, August 9, 2010

The Insanity...Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh



I think I've just about lost my mind. I can't stop editing my own book. As I continue to write, I also read books in the same genre from best-selling authors. I like to see how they present their scenes, do they curse, what kind of language and descriptive phrases do they use, how do they tell their story. There's a definite pattern to how they decide how much of the protagonist's background they introduce and when; as well as those about other characters and locations, how they set up each scene in a chapter, etc. But the more I read, the more I keep going back to my own writing and try to emulate their style. It obviously works - otherwise they wouldn't be best-selling authors, but I really need to find a stopping point with my own writing.

I can see the little publishing wardens tracking me down and dragging me off to the writer's insane asylum...I know they must have one of those out there somewhere.

I realize that I need to go back and edit my own writing before I hand it out to others - and go back again, and again, and again...(you get the picture)...until an agent and/or publisher like what they see and want to take me on as a client; but I think I'm definitely crossing the editing line. I'm barely on chapter seven! I MUST BE STOPPED! Someone make the little editing voices in my head go away! At least until I finish the book and can go back and look at it as a whole...maybe they make a pill for this?

2 comments:

Nielle said...

yay I can comment now! Hey, you're not insane you're just passionate about your writing and want it to be great :)

I find it interesting that Tom Robbins (one of my favorite writers) doesn't edit after - he edits the sentence he's on until he's happy with it and moves on. Sounds like an impractical process to me but we all work differently...

Stormys Musings said...

Now that would drive me crazy...I'm not that bad :-)