Saturday, September 8, 2007

Rewrites, editing and fooling myself

I'm finally into the 'rewriting' phase of my book, but I don't like the word 'rewrite', so I call it editing. Editing is doable -- a comma here, a hyphen or semicolon there. It's just a way to fool myself about the massive word changes that are taking place, but it feels so much more writer friendly, you know? It's like calling a hurricaine a spring shower.

This isn't the first time around for this book. The first time it was called Peanut Butter and Kisses, this time it's 19 Darby Way. In the first book I dug in for about 40,000 words, sat in utter confusion for weeks, then changed it from journal entries to first person present tense. Talk about editing ... in the first book, there were several unruly children whose whereabouts I couldn't keep track of and a flaky protagonist--hence part of why I began again, I kept losing the kids. In the new book, Katie, an only child--is manageable -- and she's a good kid. I like her and the protagonist and I really like fooling myself.

8 comments:

SHE said...

and this in part, speaks to the joy of writing vs. real life

-out with the unruly children, and in with the good kid-

just like that. with desire and ink the only necessary tools.

happy editing! ~s.

April said...

LOL! It does make a difference how we phrase it to ourselves, doesn't it?

mum4justice said...

I have been awaiting a copy via fed ex I guess we're not there yet huh? xo

Cindy said...

April, it does make a difference for me, that's for sure--I can't believe I can pull the wool over my own eyes, but whatever works, right? ALSO I can't believe you found me! I just left a message for you last week letting you know you were my inspiration to write a book in a week -- and set up a blog! Life is funny. Thanks for your post!

Cindy said...

she said...words of wisdom--desire and ink the only tools necessary. Yes the 'problem' children were really getting in the way...good to hear from you~Thanks
Cindy

Cindy said...

mum4justice---I guess you found my site--and could even leave a message. Fed Ex, eh? It's going to be a while...but it's done...sort of...now the real work begins...thank you for finding my site and posting :-)
Cindy

Anonymous said...

I bet your book will be finished soon.
You can find some of those lost kids and use them in a new story.
Love Anne Lamott.
Will check in with you again.

Cindy said...

the problem with anonymous comments is that you never really know who leaves them...however, I'm chosing to think that Ms Lamott somehow found her way to my blog...thank you for your note, your confidence in my abilities, and yes, you will see the 'children' running around in another story.
With gratitude,
~Cindy