The plain and simple truth is that editing your writing is a painful process. Searching through the text for words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs to cut; hurts! One book I read on the writing process likened it to killing your babies. After five editing trips through my first novel, I now know what the author meant. It was Stephen King by the way. Reading and re-reading your own work tends to put doubts in your mind. At least it does for me. Is there a better way to say that? Should I break up that sentence? Is the text too passive? Do I need more active verbs? Have I over described that scene? These are just a few of the questions that float through my mind as I read each page of the manuscript. I fear that I will come to a point where I am afraid to send it out to agents, much like a parent with their child on the first day of school.
I have almost finished with the latest editing process. I have 30 chapters left to go through and I should have those done in the next two days. I am hoping that I’ve done the job well and the agents I will be submitting to in the weeks to come will appreciate the novel more. That all remains to be seen. I still have the synopsis to edit from the critique I received a few weeks back and then I’ll be ready to start the search for an agent again. I’m also anxious to get back to work on my second book.
My first week back from Mexico was full of meeting with my friends. Unfortunately, the writers’ group didn’t meet last week. No one had a piece to submit so we decided to skip it again. On Friday morning I met with Larry for our weekly coffee. He’s looking to get a couple more private students. He’s feeling underutilized at the university where he teaches. I don’t think having some extra cash would upset him too much either. We also covered our writing successes of the past two weeks and had our usual discussion on the world’s problems. Victoria surprised us, she was there for a meeting, and sat in on our talk till we left.
Afterwards, I met Kathy for lunch a few blocks away from the Patio. She’s fresh back from the States and having surgery on her eyes. Her vision is now 20/30 so she can toss the reading glasses and drive again. She’s also looking for new students. She had a good time back home and was able to spend some time with her two sons and a new granddaughter.
Saturday, I spent having breakfast with Tim and Lourdes. Lourdes brought her young nephew, Sebastian. He’s a very handsome young man, either 4 or 5 years old. A little shy at first, aren’t most kids, but he warmed up rather quickly. Tim is still having problems with landlords and isn’t happy with the way things are going at the school where he teaches. I think South American ways bother him a lot. I sometimes wonder if he’ll ever be able to adjust. As they were leaving my friend Amanda joined me for some writerly talk and to discuss an upcoming trip to see the Nasca lines we are planning. She’s happy with the way the edits of her second book have gone and will soon be sending queries to agents herself. It won’t be long before she leaves. Her flight back to the States is on June 7th. I’m sure we will stay in touch. I will certainly be anxious to follow her travels and adventures as she heads for Sweden and Italy.
Last, I went to see “The Avengers” with Steve and Antonio over the weekend. WOW, what a movie. It had everything I like in a film of this type. High action, good plot, great special effects, laugh out loud humor and very decent acting. I give it 5Llamas on my rating scale, a first for a movie since I’ve started doing this. My opinion is that this movie should be seen on a big screen, so it’s worth the big bucks. Happy May Day everyone, I hope you have a fantastic month.