Well thanks to some good advice on here (thanks litchick) I pushed through the pain barrier and finished a first draft. With fat to be trimmed, which is great. I am now engaged with the editing and it has to be said this seems like breaking stones. Bits read OK bits make me cringe. Some areas have emerged which need more material, some have gone into the bin. I am setting aside at least an hour a day and sticking to it. The aim is to produce a working second draft. The question is, although you can undoubtedly improve work by revision, you can also lose the freshness if you overdo it. So I am just wondering - is there a point in a novel when you can write 'the end' and really mean it?
With painting you definitely get this moment, it's hard to spot, and sometimes you only spot it when you've missed the turn off. Working with paint is such a different discipline though, where hit miss can trump incremental toil.
It doesn't help I suppose that I have just re-read the Dubliners and I could spend the rest of my life trying to find one sentence as pristine.
anyone editing tips? if it's hurting it should be working, right?!
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Self editing - how do you know when enough is enough?
8 replies
ninah · 09/08/2010 22:40
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