The Editing Demon

To say that I have not been active in most of my online accounts this past half year is a bit of an understatements. I have many, many reasons, all of them pretty dull or too personal to share here, so let’s just skip all that and say: I’m back! I missed you guys.

 Rest assured, just because I have not been active on my blog, does not mean that I let any other form of writing slip away from me as well. In fact I am quite proud of the amount of writing I still managed to get done during a rather tough school year.

Mostly I have been busy with editing a story that has been trapped inside my mind since I was thirteen years old, and only now seems to be coming onto the page, pretty close to what it looks like inside my head. And yes, finally, after hearing countless authors and a few friends of mine exclaim their joys of editing—with me just sitting there, shaking my head in disbelief—I now too, must say that at the very least I no longer consider editing to be the demon it once was.

In fact, I now no longer carry a sword, shield or any magical items to protect myself and slay the beast whenever the next dreaded “editing session” comes along. Now we wave and smile at each other like friends who are not yet completely comfortable together but enjoy each other’s company in the end.

I think what did it for me was the pure joy that came after days, weeks or even months of struggling with a particular passage without ever getting it right and knowing, in the back of my head that it was bringing my story down—and then having the illuminating blissful insight where everything just falls into place, and your fingers are a blur on the keyboard or you simply figure out once and for all that it has to go.

For me, it is reading the latest version and remembering my visions for the story and the (at times) utter crap that it turned into the first time I wrote it (can you imagine I actually send both my first and second draft to publishers and agents? Yikes) and see everything it is now.

Tell me what are your thoughts on editing?

Is anyone out here ignoring the sunny weather outside (haha joke, I live in the Netherlands, we have no sun here) and participating in Camp NaNoWriMo?  I am huddled around the campfire doing 30,000 words this month and … you guessed it, some more edits.

Keep Writing!

Xx Noortje