A day in the life
Join me as I grapple with my one true nemesis: editing.
10am I have a rare morning in half term to myself so naturally instead of writing immediately, we have to get down to the more important things: coffee and which of the fancy biscuits I should eat.
10.15am Yes, I took an exceptionally long time to decide, what of it? You’re not the boss of me!
10.30am Okay so I’ve settled in a good spot, laptop is open, got my notebook at the ready. Now to flip through my unhinged scribbles and see if I can remember what on earth it is I’ve written about, who my characters are and what on earth I’m trying to achieve with this round of edits. Don’t ask me, I’ll be the last to know.
10.40am Just opened the ‘Plot’ page to find loads of blank post-it notes. Ah yes, I was going to note it all out again to make sure the newest version is fully cemented in my head then I just…didn’t. Ace. One small existential crisis later, the plot notes are filled and we are actually tackling the document on my laptop.
11am I cannot for the life of me remember WHY I was going to flip two of the plot points so that one comes before the other rather than, as it currently stands, being the other way round. I know it felt like a Eureka! moment when I came up with it at 3am though so there must be some merit in there somewhere.
11.30am I’ve managed 30 minutes of solid editing. Now wondering if I have in fact made it worse? Should I revert back? Tell you what I definitely should do, I should definitely eat more fancy biscuits.
12.30pm I’ve tackled two chapters. Basically, I’ve climbed Everest and I will be taking no further opinions on whether this is a wild exaggeration or not.
1pm Imagine if it does really well, and despite indie publishing, it gets picked up by Netflix. Or gets made into a movie! Trying to think who would play who. Maybe I should look at my Pinterest mood board for inspiration.
1.15pm Would I have to go to the premiere if it did get made into movie? What would I wear? I can never get dresses to fit properly apart from my wedding dress, which was custom made and fitted. Maybe I’d have to do that. Wonder how much that would cost.
2pm Would cost quite a lot. I should probably stop eating biscuits, would want to be in the best shape of my life for the red carpet. Does the author go along the red carpet in these circumstances? I don’t think I’d like it tbh, I always blink when there’s a flash. Maybe I should join a gym.
3pm Seven more fancy biscuits later and I’ve just realised I didn’t eat lunch but I’m going to plough on because we have PROGRESS. I cannot wait until I just have the copy edit left, catching typos feels WAY easier than whatever this is I’m doing right now.
3.30pm Ah, I do love my characters. This is genuinely a good story, I can see this going somewhere. Maybe this will be it.
4pm I hate everything and everyone. I should probably delete everything and start over.
5pm Didn’t delete, edited another chapter and immediately reverted back to the original. I think I need a lie down.