I fought the edit letter and so far it's a draw.

[leahbobet]

So, I've been revising. Here's yesterday's proof:



And here's today's:


Mmm. Fish tacos.

Technically I have not finished chapter two and so you're all probably supposed to treat me like something a cat ignores. But I will say in my defence that things got tangly and snarly, and I needed to do about five passes on chapter one to make everything click into place.

The edit letter is a multi-pass operation: individual chapter queries/issues, systematic whole-book arc issues that need to be checked for consistency in each chapter, prose stuff, things that aren't in the edit letter at all that I just want to deal with. This is tricky. The trickiest bit is finding the openings for new stuff: to borrow a metaphor, it's like finding a way to unpick three rows in the middle of an already-finished sweater to add in a dart or something without unravelling the whole book. Some bits won't let me in; others will. I have to sit behind a blind and wait and reread and pick until I figure out which is which.

I kind of knew it would be like this: not huge overhauls, but picky, delicate detail work. It takes concentration. I have to think before I slice, a lot.

I am not going to finish chapter two tonight. I've been at this all afternoon/evening. My brain hurts. I am going to go watch Heroes with Dr. My Roommate. And maybe knit.

Forward the draft. Tomorrow. :p

Comments

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's very technical, this kind of rewriting & polishing; it engages the code-writing muscles in my brain far more than first or second drafts do.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

...yeah, come to think of it, it does kind of remind me of debugging code.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Weird how we keep doing this in tandem.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

It is. Although I think you're like a book ahead of me.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

The book I'm angsting right now is my first sold one. Though I am on my second edit letter.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Ohh, okay. I had a confusion. *g*

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

If only your confusion were true!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Revising is slow. You're doing very well, by my standards.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[kelljones.livejournal.com]

Thanks for blogging this!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

It's actually helping: it's making me articulate stuff, and when I explain it I understand it better. :)

[sarcasm-hime.livejournal.com]

Were the fish tacos yummy? From where did they come?

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

They were! It's The T Cafe, Bloor and Borden. I like it in all ways except for the way where it's only open until like 9pm.

[gruberman.livejournal.com]

Ysa was correct, your LJ is interesting :D

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Hah! I'm glad someone thinks so. :)

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