Nearly there...

Wasn't able to do any more editing today, but I'm almost finished with this part. Next up: cover design (by a talented artist) and proof copies.

This is going pretty well!

Progress

I've made it through three more chapters, and am still pretty excited by this book. That's always a good thing.

Editing is a slow process, and you really do need other people to read your book along the way. Someone who is reading Wizard's Mischief: Flame has caught a continuity error that I have missed up to now. I need to straighten it out, and I'm grateful for the help.

Pleased

I'm pleased to report that I did, in fact, edit my Work In Progress (WIP) today. And...right away I noticed a mistake in the first chapter that really needed to be fixed: I mention an uncle that the main character does not have. His complicated family situation is one of the drivers of the whole plot of the book, so you'd think I'd have caught an inconvenient and impossible uncle before now, but no.

The editing continues tomorrow...

Determined

It's a new week, and I'm determined this week to achieve my editing goals. So naturally I haven't edited at all today.

But...this time it was on purpose. I realized that some of my muddle from the previous weeks (apart from being unusually busy last week) was due to a general air of chaos at home. I used to laugh at the idea that writers could be sensitive to atmosphere, but now I think there's something to it. It's not that I can't work amidst chaos--I can, and have. It's just that when you have a writing-related task to do you will sometimes be in the mindset where any other task seems disproportionately important, and you will fritter away your whole day doing laundry and dishes, making meal plans and cooking, or cleaning out your email inbox instead of buckling down to the job at hand.

So today I spent my time getting things organized and clean, and setting some things in motion that will make life a bit easier over the next couple of days. I can now spend some much-needed hours on my editing tasks in the daytime when I'm not fighting to stay awake. With editing, that's important. 

Back next week

I'm just going to make it official: this week is too busy for me to count on getting things done here on this blog or with my editing, which has stalled. I'm hoping to make some changes that will allow me to improve things. Whether I get my editing done or not, the sequel to Wizard's Mischief will kick off in July!

Better luck next week...or maybe the week after that...

Well, my plans to get at least a little editing done today were derailed again, this time by a migraine that is still with me. At this point I'm going to go ahead and reschedule my carved-in-feathers-plans for editing for next week, because tomorrow is already too busy for editing.

I think I go through this every summer--thinking that busy season ends sometime after Easter and I can focus and concentrate on the more difficult parts of writing (editing, marketing, etc.). But in reality things don't calm down until after July 4. I don't know why that is--it just is.

Anyway, I'm not giving up, but I am being realistic. Back next week!

Failing to meet weekly writing goals

Somehow I thought when I wrote my goals down on Monday that I would be able to make them happen.

Um....

Well, anyway, I'm not giving up just yet. There are still two days left in this week.

The truth is that I always forget that editing and writing are so different. When I'm writing, I can put on some music, tune things out, and hit that word goal. Sometimes it's a struggle but it's not impossible.

Editing? You need focus. You need concentration. You need not to have insomnia two nights running.

Next week is already shaping up to be unusually busy, so my hope of getting Wizard's Mischief: Flame through another full round of editing by the end of June is looking incredibly iffy. Can I edit and write at the same time in July? I'd rather not find out...

Weekly writing goals

Amazingly enough, I got a bit of work done last week on the prewriting stuff for the second book in the Wizard's Mischief trilogy. My writing goal for this week is to edit at least two chapters of Wizard's Mischief: Flame while continuing the prewriting process.

Goals. I haz them.