The Grind Continues – The Climb #211

Sunday 20^th August 2017

Today has felt slow. On one hand, it’s been busy with sparring and then a meeting with another writer which meant I had less time for editing – and I still got through a couple of chapters – but I didn’t get to the end of the novel.
I’m now on the big climatic scene and I’m finding the editing difficult. I think this could be for several reasons.
Firstly, I’m tired. I’ve spent the whole weekend editing and despite getting a bit of a break, the process is very mentally gruelling. It’s possible that I’m run down enough and out of mental fuel.
Secondly, perhaps this chapter is already decently edited. Therefore it’s going to be harder to find things to change. I seem to remember my agent commenting on a previous edit that this was a good chapter. Yet, it doesn’t feel as good as the last major action scene. Perhaps, the act of not finding stuff to edit and improve means that I’m getting a little more frustrated about it.
I need to remind myself that I’m editing to improve the novel. If stuff needs to stay, it needs to stay. Yet, this chapter just does not feel as graceful as the others, and it’s got to a stage where I’m calling it a night half way through so I can look afresh in the morning.
I take some solace in the fact that I’m prepared to stop and do it properly rather than just rush it, despite being so over this edit. I’m sure that level of diligence will pay off in the end.
Everytime I think of just saying “it’s good enough” I remind myself that that bit of extra work will pay dividens down the road. I’m happy with my work ethic.
But, of course, with my head being so novel focused, it really wasn’t into sparring today. I don’t think I fought bad, I just felt I should have fought better. I’ve told myself that I’m not going to start worrying about Wessex League until 1^st September. I’m still doing little things in the background such as being strict on my eating and turning up to training (although I’m very tempted to skip Monday night to get the edits complete).
I tried to tell myself that I did well considering I was totally unfocused, but still I was left with a bit of frustration.
However, I got to forget about that after heading into Reading Town Centre to try a 7 Bone burger. I really enjoyed it and got to chat to the person who wanted some writing advice.
I talked a lot, mostly things I’ve said here, and I hope it was useful. I think I gave some commercial considerations they maybe hadn’t thought about. I think we’re going to do a Cake Club style ‘rip their next novel apart’ session sometime in late September when they’ve had chance to put together some ideas.
I enjoyed the break as well as the burger but it was then straight home to the edits.
Next week is going to be an insanely busy week: it’s busy in the day job with a number of trips. I’ve got the edits to complete, and there’s a tonne of School of the Sword work that I was going to do at the weekend but didn’t get done because of the edits (I just wish I could remember what they all were – I really should have added them to my ToDo list)
But I hope to get to the bank holiday weekend with everything done.
And then I can relax!
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.