This little rough patch I've hit with the revision efforts may be all for the better. It's a good opportunity to remind myself that a writer is working all the time, even if the fingertips aren't caressing a keyboard.
In fact, a great part of the process goes on between the ears during periods of disconnect; that's assuming one still has some gray matter in there to process those most subtle of realignments and adjustments. I think I do, though I'd be the first to admit that it doesn't work on par with the gourd glob of years past. But there are still a couple of synapses firing a message or two.
I was sitting here a few minutes ago mentally beating and berating myself for not being hunkered over the laptop with that file open, accomplishing something. But truth is, when I push myself into something I'm not ready and willing to tackle, the end product might well be "de-accomplishment."
Yeah, I know that word doesn't exist, but who cares. It describes what I mean, thus it works well enough. You know what they say about rules.
I've got a good basic framework established for the murder book. Most of the key things are there. All it needs at this point is some fine tuning . . . cuts for brevity in places, an addition here and there to clarify a point. It's basically a done deal.
But of course, anyone who has ever written a book of any kind knows that you could go on forever with it. You never finish, you just stop at some point, after a half dozen rewrites of this and that.
Many times you can get a clearer reading by bouncing it off a disinterested third party, see if it flies with them. That works much better with fiction than non-fiction, however, because the third party doesn't have benefit of the facts you have and thus has no way of knowing if you're spot on about details. You can get a good reading on the general tone of things, which is what counts; most of the people who read it won't know if the facts are correct either.
Hopefully, one has a sense of integrity sufficiently refined to make certain the factual material is correct. Unless you're a politician, you will never gain anything by propagating outright lies and half-truths. They will come back and bite your butt at some point.
So, I took a sober look at things this morning. There is more time remaining until the end of the year than it took to originally write the book. Time wise, I'm in good shape.
There are lots of things to worry about, but this isn't one of them.
In fact, a great part of the process goes on between the ears during periods of disconnect; that's assuming one still has some gray matter in there to process those most subtle of realignments and adjustments. I think I do, though I'd be the first to admit that it doesn't work on par with the gourd glob of years past. But there are still a couple of synapses firing a message or two.
I was sitting here a few minutes ago mentally beating and berating myself for not being hunkered over the laptop with that file open, accomplishing something. But truth is, when I push myself into something I'm not ready and willing to tackle, the end product might well be "de-accomplishment."
Yeah, I know that word doesn't exist, but who cares. It describes what I mean, thus it works well enough. You know what they say about rules.
I've got a good basic framework established for the murder book. Most of the key things are there. All it needs at this point is some fine tuning . . . cuts for brevity in places, an addition here and there to clarify a point. It's basically a done deal.
But of course, anyone who has ever written a book of any kind knows that you could go on forever with it. You never finish, you just stop at some point, after a half dozen rewrites of this and that.
Many times you can get a clearer reading by bouncing it off a disinterested third party, see if it flies with them. That works much better with fiction than non-fiction, however, because the third party doesn't have benefit of the facts you have and thus has no way of knowing if you're spot on about details. You can get a good reading on the general tone of things, which is what counts; most of the people who read it won't know if the facts are correct either.
Hopefully, one has a sense of integrity sufficiently refined to make certain the factual material is correct. Unless you're a politician, you will never gain anything by propagating outright lies and half-truths. They will come back and bite your butt at some point.
So, I took a sober look at things this morning. There is more time remaining until the end of the year than it took to originally write the book. Time wise, I'm in good shape.
There are lots of things to worry about, but this isn't one of them.
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