My Editing Has Levelled Up – The Climb #199

Tuesday 8^th August 2017

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather today. There’s a gastric flu going around and it says something about how bad my stomach issues are when I’m not sure if I have a bad case of it or my stomach is just flaring up.
As a result I’ve felt a bit drained all day today. However, that hasn’t stopped me getting some work done, although not as much as I would have liked.
I’m continuing work on the consolidation of the 3 chapters into one. I’m now onto the second of those three chapters. I’ve changed some of the setup so it’s meant a bit of editing, and I’ve actually been surprised at how much my editing has improved in the last couple of months.
Up until now, I’ve pretty much been looking at my agent’s notes and unless I can find a compelling reason to ignore them, then I’ve accepted the changes. But as we get into the last 3^rd of the book, so I’m editing stuff blind.
And it’s actually shocked me today just how ruthless I am. I seem to be taking the same level of editing forward with me. I’m actually shocked at just how much I’ve levelled up.
And whilst it’s not particularly easy, a lot of that is down to confidence. It feels a bit like the stabilisers have come off the bike and I’m riding by myself for the first time. It feels great, but a little scary.
As I say in swordfighting, it can be so difficult to spot your own progress. The same is true for writing, but today, editing this chapter I can see just how much I’ve improved. It’s actually perked me up a bit.
I also got a request today from a writer friend to be a mentor to him. I’m a little uneasy about this, not because I’m unwilling to help, but I’m not sure whether I’m at the stage where I can be an effective mentor. I’m also incredibly slow. I still have a friend’s script I promised to read that I’ve just not found time for.
But if you consider mentoring to be something more like Cake Club where we yell at each other with blunt honesty, then maybe I can help. I’m not sure what level they want to play at. And to be honest, until I have a book deal and sales figures I’m not going to know what level I play at. But I know if they want to get an agent and go for more traditional publishers, I think they are going to need to step up their game.
Writing is hard, and to those who don’t want to make it their profession, I’m kind but still honest. If someone wants to be professional, however, I’m brutally honest. I don’t expect any less back, and indeed my response on the 1^st chapter redraft shows that those around me are not beyond telling me to my face when something doesn’t work.
I’ve read bits of their stuff and I think they are a decent writer. The question is whether they have the fortitude and resilience to step it up a couple of notches. There’s also the question of how far do you go with critique? You have to give them harsh criticism but at the same time, you need to remember that this is their book, not “this is how I would have written it”.
It’s tricky but I take it that the little bits I’ve helped with in the past have been worthwhile enough that he thinks I can bring him value.
We’re going to sit down after Fightcamp and I’m going to go over his strategy. I suspect I’m going to get him to write a different book than the one he thinks he needs to write… but we’ll see.
I’d hoped to get some vlog editing done this evening, but feeling a bit run down with illness combined with good progress on the edits meant I never really got further than an actual clip.
I suspect that perfection syndrome is kicking in a bit as well. I want to make a truly epic swordfighting montage, and apply slow motion and music and colour correction to it, but I think I’m worried that the result won’t end up like the idea I have in my head.
I need to get over that and be prepared to suck. At least the daily vlogs did not give me time to be precious.
But, I’m OK with not making progress on the vlogs given that I feel I’ve made significant progress on the edits. I might not have edited a huge bunch of words, but the level of my editing has massively improved and I feel confident that the last chapters will be brought up to the same standard as the first two thirds of the novel.
There’s still a mountain of work to do but I do feel like I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels. Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.