Welcome to my weekly series where I note the ups and down of editing my queer dieselpunk (murder) mystery! Read the first post in the series here.
Day 29, June 9th, 2020
Trying to divine the difference between gawp and gawk, but it seems to be slipping through my fingers. Kept a single, lonely ‘but’ today in a multi-part sentence because the scene really deserved it.
It’ll soon be a month since I’ve started editing the novel, and it honestly doesn’t feel as much. Will have to revisit this idea later because I really used to hate editing with the passion of a thousand suns. (Ooops. I’ve just dated myself as a nineties teen—yet again.)
Caught two obvious typing errors in the span of just a few paragraphs (kiss instead of kissed etc.) which made me think where the hell my mind was way back when I was writing this exact scene. And it’s one of my very favourite tropes—the ballroom scene. I should’ve been all over it.
Instead… eyes wide open, read every word, dammit (really not as easy as it sounds) and work, work, work!
Used ‘earnestness’ today for the first time in my life in any kind of writing, I think. I’ll be keeping an eye out for my beta’s opinion on that one.
This post was a fun start!
Reached the intro for one of my favourite side characters today—one I have big plans for, errr, in book four, I think. Unfortunately, they’re a part of one of the more problematic choices I made in Johnny’s Girls, so I’ll have to talk to my beta about that, too.
Day 30, June 10th, 2020
Second try this morning, after the first one flopped, saw me finishing chapter ten today. Drama llama actually made it fun!
Found a ‘fuck’ and a ‘’tear someone a new one’ in the copy. I am perfectly aware that I’m not obliged to use polite language if I wish not to. But still… my history-loving self kinda wants me to, if it makes any sense.
Also, I somehow managed to lose track of my cliffhanger for chapter 10 while writing the novel in the first place. I was a bit amazed to find the poor thing stuck to the beginning of the next chapter. Yes. I ‘ended’ a chapter the moment before action started. Not the moment when it begun. My brain: how the hell did I manage that? My partner: you were chasing your self imposed seventeen-day NaNo goal.
Oh. That actually makes sense for a lot of things in this novel.
Day 31, June 11th, 2020
Today was a ‘why not skip it for no reason whatsoever?’ day. And then I opened chapter eleven and found the intro to yet another of my favourite supporting characters, and it started with detailed description of their evening wear. Continuing to edit was a no-brainer after that.
Edited 1190 words in the end. Not much. Not nothing. Eppur si muove.
Day 32, June 12th, 2020
Finished chapter eleven rather quickly. It’s end is one of my favourite cliffhangers ever, so it wasn’t such a hardship, no siree. I have doubts for the weekend, though—I’ll be off to a family retreat!—but my keyboard is packed, and the monday slot awaits for this very post, so I’ll have to make the time. (It’s actually wonderful. Not sure why I never did a series like this before.)
Day 33/34, June 13/14th, 2020
No editing whatsoever! Spent most of the time outside and all of it offline. And I’m not really into editing at 6AM, so… fun times!
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Photo by Taton Moïse on Unsplash.
Vesna Kurilic 