Seriously, I think i'm the only writer in the world who gets to the point where she freaking HATES. HER. BOOKS! lol
Editing is so freaking hard because by the time i'm in the "almost ready to release this book- just one more round of edits- oops, make that two more rounds..." I am so freaking sick to death of reading my own words, that I can't stand the damn thing!!!
I think i'm not normal.
But it's time consuming to go through the edits and make the changes- especially when you get to the point where i'm at... where I think everything i've written is complete crap, the characters are idiots, the story is boring, etc.
I'm a bundle of joy, huh?
LOL- Really though, i'm just being honest. I mean, i'm pretty much always freaking happy. I love life, I love myself, I'm a glass half full type of girl- but there is just something about writing... that makes me all wonky!
Maybe it's the fact that I write a whole book.
Then I go through and enrich it (ha).
Then I send it to 4 different friends who offer 4 very vastly different opinions and see things completely seperately from one another (which is awesome, but makes for 4 additional rounds of edits, etc).
Then it goes to my editor.
Then I have to really edit it.
Then it goes back to her.
Then it comes back to me.
And seriously? By then, I hate everything! And just sitting down to actually DO THE WORK, is such a big freaking effort because I seriously sit here and think, "holy crap, THIS IS SO BORING I CAN'T EVEN GET THROUGH IT TO EDIT IT!!!!"
But then I open an email and it's from my super amazingly awesome and talented cover designer (www.michellepreast.com) and she has mock ups of my cover in there- and then I get all excited and I desperately want to finish my edits just so YOU ALL CAN SEE THE PRETTY COVER OF MY NEW BOOK!
So I sit down all motivated to edit, but then that means I have to read all the shit i've just read and written a bajillion times already. And I'd rather eat thin mints or something.
See? I'm completely mental.
This book will probably come out someday. lol
Wish me luck. Or sanity. Or something that resembles the ability to pretend maybe I didn't write this book and I'm editing it from someone else's perspective?
Or just send me some really hot guy to massage my shoulders and then feed me grapes.
Thanks.
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i wish you luck and sanity! But I think every author goes through this! I did, somewhere around the 30th edit :)
ReplyDeleteLikewise on the wish for sanity. All I can say is it will never be perfect. What we have to decide is when it's perfect enough. Best of luck! : )
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle and Alan! IT's nice to know that i'm NOT the only author who eventually hates everything. So does that mean i'm "normal" BOOOOOO! hahaha
ReplyDelete:)
I totally understand. I always set my books up to be a series, then by the end of book one I'm so done with the entire story that I have to force myself to start book two. And editing...ugh. I hate it. And of course there are those readers who will find the smallest typo and highlight it. One thing I use which has helped is Text Aloud. It reads your book to you. The voice is sort of robotic and if you have it do too many chapters in a sitting you'll start to drift off, but it has caught many things in my books.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am SO with you on this one!!! I cannot stand my books by the time I'm done editing!! And then I'm convinced they are complete crap because that's all I can see them as and I think if I have to obsess anymore about myself or my books I will just throw up everywhere!!!! So. Anyway. I am with you there!! Just saying hi back!! :) Love your honesty!
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