Welcome back everyone! I hope your week is being nice to you all so far. Right now I am working on trucking through it even though I would much rather just do a significant higher amount of sleeping. No particular reason, I just feel a bit lazy. I think having several days off at once that week or so ago really spoiled me.
I have been trying to work on a good topic for today. Right now my focus (and I am fairly convinced focus for the next millennia) will be editing, but I think using that is still a good idea. See with how much time editing takes, going back to the actual writing part of...well writing, can be a little bit of a daunting task. You have been so focused on making sure you are watching for spelling, grammar, and particular wording that you brain is basically a little stuck. So I thought that would be a fun thing to talk about today!
I'm mostly bringing this up because I really do want to work on other things, but I'm not letting myself do it because I need to get 'Rending the Seal' finished and I know if I start work on anything else I will get too distracted. I will live vicariously through all of you! Write for me! Write because I can't right now!
Anyway, so let's say you've been editing for the last several months (but of course it seems like several years) and you sit down to either continue work on or to start a new story. That's great and super awesome. Be prepared for the first thing to happen is that you will sit there and stare at the screen/whatever medium you are writing on for at least two to three minutes with absolutely nothing happening. Part of you is expecting the words to already be there (in the case of a new story) and there is a part of you that will also want to go back from the beginning and read through and correct whatever's already there (in the case you are continuing something else). Now in the case of picking up where you left off, which I have done, there's nothing wrong with going back and reading a bit, especially to get a reminder for what exactly was happening (refreshers are your friend) but you are trying to get back into the actual writing, not editing. If you start editing this you aren't going to be making any progress. Read back a few paragraphs or maybe a chapter and do not touch anything that would be used as an editing tool (unless you really can't help it, like you put a name in there wrong or whatever) I understand it won't be a perfect process, but you need to keep reminding yourself that you are there to write, not fix.
If you are starting from the beginning don't be frustrated by it starting slow. It will happen and the reason why is because you are going to be fixing every little mistake you make. At least the ones you can see, and since you were editing forever, you will be able to see all of them. Well, that's what your mind is going to be telling you. See that's the weird thing about going back to the first draft writing after editing; you are convinced you are seeing mistakes or things that need to be adjusted/corrected everywhere. So what happens is you are going to go back and reread everything you do just to make sure. This makes the writing go very slowly at first until you get into the rhythm you're used to and no longer care. Granted how long it takes to get there is different for everyone, just don't get too frustrated when it happens to you.
Just remember editing will happen again, but that will be after you're done with this new story. For now just be happy that you are working on a new story and enjoy it. Someday I'll get to even join you, maybe...I am convinced I will be editing until I die quite honestly. I have a good thing going where I can work on some kind of writing while other people are reading my work, but right now it's just editing, and after 'Rending the Seal' is done it will be jumping straight into 'Through the Broken Mirror' to edit. I really feel bad about how long it's taken for that prequel to get done and I don't want the gap between those two to be that large. Hopefully it won't be and you'll all get super fun things as soon as possible.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today! I hope you are all having a fantastic week. With any luck I will be back on Friday, so let's hope my schedule works out that way. For now I hope you all write out super fun stories because I can't right now!
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