Chateau Lloyd

I’m crawling my way through “A Man of Destiny,” knocking down two dozen or so pages per session and while the progress is encouraging, I find the process tedious in the extreme.

It’s one thing to edit someone else’s work.  There at least the material is fresh and one can approach it with an air of novelty.

When it’s your own product…not so much.  This is the second pass and I know I’ve got one more to go.  I’m all about attention to detail but there comes a point when one gets positively sick of the exercise.

The best part of writing is the creation.  Nothing is better than knocking out 2,000 or so words in an evening and watching your thoughts take a permanent form. 

Editing is the opposite – your thoughts are there, and now you get to shudder at your mistakes and second-guess your decisions.  Continuity and consistent description are also wonderful traps for the aggressive undisciplined writer.  I remember on my first pass I had to do a massive re-write after changing the concept of one of the characters later in the story.

Yeah, that was fun.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that this isn’t just one book.  Everything I change has downstream effects and I’ve got four sets of documents open to make sure I’m not destroying the narrative to come.

Last week I was feeling good about the size and scope of my creation; now I curse it early and often.

I suppose it would be different if I had an actual editor to help, but that’s beyond my reach.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to get a pro for the “revised edition.” 

Assuming anyone ever reads it.

Still, soon it will be done and that will bring the second best part of writing:  talking about the creation with people who liked it.  I think this is more accessible than either of my earlier works, so maybe I’ll get a readership reaching into triple digits.