One Edit Is Not Enough

Today I reached a milestone: I finished my first full edit/rewrite of my book. The words that I might use to describe this moment are:

• gleeful
• exciting
• satisfying
• happy
• proud
• giddy

I also sorta think I'm a total badass. But I think anyone who finishes their first full edit of a 67,500 page book might feel like quite the badass. The only thing that made me feel like more of a badass was when I finished the first draft.

So I've ridden the wave of that feeling for the entire afternoon. I'm still feeling giddy and happy and all those other words I mentioned above. But I'm also aware that I still have a long way to go.

I think a big mistake a lot of writers make is believing that one edit is enough. Unless you're doing stream of consciousness writing with the goal of vomiting on the page without regard to readability, everything you write needs to be edited - and everything needs to be edited more than once.

I like to think of the first round of edits as the "glaring problems cleanup round." When you do your first edit, you catch stuff like:

• Totally incoherent sentences
• Grammatical oopsies
• Glaring flow problems
• Big story/plot inconsistencies
• Readability problems
• Pacing problems

The first edit is, I think, the most work. Because you're taking what may have been stream of consciousness writing and making it into something that makes sense and is worth reading.

So pat yourself on the back when you get through your first edit. But don't consider your work ready to publish.

I think most writing needs at least two or three rounds of edits to be worth reading, and I think four or five rounds is even better. Everything I write (including these blog posts) goes through no less than three rounds of edits before it's released to the world. I shudder to think about my first drafts. Sometimes they're awesome, but more often they're lacking in multiple ways. And you won't spot them all on the first round.

So to all my fellow writers out there, resist the temptation to say "I'm finished!" when you've completed your first round of edits. Give it at least one more round, or two, before you call it ready. And then...well, it's still not done. Then it goes to a professional editor. ;)

On Again, Off Again Passions

I'm wondering today if you can have a passion that is on again, off again. You know, like one of those unhealthy romantic things that most of us find ourselves tangled up in at some point. Except that this on again, off again relationship lasts a lifetime.

I feel like my writing is sort of a flighty, wishy washy, unpredictable sort of passion. But then it really isn't I guess. I'm a writer by profession. I wonder if I wasn't a writer by profession, would I be a passionate writer by night? Like, totally committed? Ten thousand percent? Can't get enough of it?

I often tell myself in my frustrated moments that you can only be passionate about something that you are completely obsessed with. But then I think, that's probably not true or realistic.

What I really think, I think (you get that?), is that there are three kinds of people in the world:

• The people who are completely engrossed by a single passion in both their career and in their personal lives
• The people who are completely engrossed by a single passion in their spare time
• The people who have on again, off again relationships with a single passion or perhaps multiple ones

There are a number of prolific writers out there. I think if I had enough to say, I'd certainly be one. I mean I've pumped out several of these blogs this week no problem. They generally take me less than 10 minutes to write when I've actually got something I want to say.

But I also see writers, and artists, who come in and out of the spotlight. Who go years or decades in between producing something new.

Maybe I'm one of those?

Or maybe I'm trying to make sense out of something that doesn't make any sense, just to make myself feel better about being a wishy washy sort of writer. One who has bursts of creativity followed by a long silence that gets covered up by books and tv and gardening.

I don't know. What do you think?

Finding the Right Kind of Busy

I've had some interesting things to say this week about my busy schedule. And I'll continue it with the following statement:

Being too busy kills dreams.

That might sound a bit harsh, but the reality is that if you want to achieve your dreams, you've got to figure out how to be the right kind of busy.

I'll take one sentence and give you a bunch of fill-in-the-blank answers. All of these answers are dream killers. Here it is:

Spending too much time _______ will keep you from achieving your dreams.

• chasing money
• working
• watching TV
• scrolling Facebook
• sleeping
• doing things you don't enjoy

Society as a whole is way too busy - we all know that. But not everyone is busy to the detriment of their dreams.

What are you doing with your time? Is what you are doing a stepping stone to your goals or is it a hamster wheel?

Here are the questions I've been asking myself lately, and maybe you can ask yourself these questions too:

• Am I too focused on making money?
• Do I work too many hours at my job?
• Am I making time to pursue the things I dream of pursuing?
• Do I have plans for where I'm going next?
• Am I using my free time well?
• Do I have any bad habits that are keeping me from progressing towards my dreams?

I'd be interested to hear how others answer these questions. Here are my answers:

• Yes. I initially was focused on earning money for future goals, and somewhere along the line it shifted to just earning money.
• Yes. I'm working too many hours at my job.
• Sort of. But sort of not.
• I used-ta-did. I abandoned said plans due to crazy work schedule.
• No. I'm working myself to the point of exhaustion.
• Yes. I need to work on my confidence, get up earlier, and stop scrolling social media.

The first step to positive change is figuring out where you're at in your life. The next step is figuring out how to move to where you want to go.

First step, check!

Having Confidence as a Writer

Today is one of those "I can't focus at all, I mean at all, I mean totally at all (continue this to infinity)" kind of days. And there are multiple reasons for this:

1. I didn't sleep last night. Brains don't work very well without sleep, do they?
2. It's a Monday. Need I say more?
3. I'm reevaluating. And by that I mean reevaluating how I'm spending my time. 
4. I live with cats. They are oh so cute, and I love to snuggle them at random times throughout the day.
5. It's First Monday and I'm excited. The first Monday of the month I meet my friend Bill for dinner, and we have a grande ole time.

I haven't touched my book manuscript in months, and I waffle around why that is. I think, as I touched on in my last post, I've just been busy busy busy. And when you're busy busy busy, it's hard to write write write. Well, let me amend this statement.

It's hard to write if you're not obsessed with writing. And I'm not obsessed with writing. I love it, but I'm not obsessed with it. At least not all the time.

For me, writing is more like an on-again, off-again relationship. I write in spurts, I produce stuff in waves. I experience fleeting moments of brilliance that quickly flit away into the atmosphere from which they came. See that? That was one. I think. Right? Surely!

But I do sometimes wonder how much of this behavior is attributed to a deep down lack of confidence.

Every artist struggles with feeling like they are good enough. I've written about it before, and I'm sure if you want to scroll through my posts you'll find it quickly enough. But artists (and I hesitate to even call myself one - how's that for lack of confidence?) always want to produce something great. Nobody wants to be a mediocre artist, do they? I mean, does anyone really want to be a mediocre anything at the end of the day?

And with that comes fear of failure, and fear of mediocrity, and fear of just not measuring up. Or of just not being that artist you thought you were or that you set out to be.

Then all of a sudden I'll be thumbing through a magazine and see a promotion for a recently published book. And it's a book with a story that sounds, to me, absolutely cliche or terribly laughable or painfully unrealistic. And yet...wait for it...

Somebody published it.

So um, why can't I do that? Why do I spend so much of my precious energy fearing failure and worrying about being good enough when - clearly - there are plenty of people who are "good enough" to get published? And why do I think this way when I'm a professional writer by day, and perhaps actually have a good shot at producing something good?

These are my Monday musings as I pitter patter around my house, and as I look at my author website (which needs to be redone - oh, technology, you imploded on yourself). And as I look at my workload, which needs to be better managed so I can have time for the things that matter to me.

And let's not forget that little manuscript file here on my computer that is screaming at me. You know what it's saying? "Work on me, you stupid human. I've been sitting here for months."