Past the read through...on to the real editing.

This part of the process really freaked me out today.  I started off with this great superior feeling, thinking 'it's going to be easy to edit this masterpiece because I'm obviously awesome at writing', and by the time I got through the first page of my manuscript (it's part of a prologue, no less...so right off the bat I'm hearing the critics in my head scream at me), I was sourly aware of the fact that this is going to be a long, hard road.  I really ended up starting to think I'm terrible at this.  What made it worse was when I read each sentence aloud and thought 'this sounds like awkward rambling'.

Just like every day of writing the first draft produced different qualities, I fear that every day of editing will change depending on my mood.  And today, I was in an awful, horrible, cranky mood.  I have no good reason why I've been so moody all day.  Maybe I'm coming down with PMS?  Who knows.  Maybe my thyroid medication is making me feel short tempered and easily aggravated?  I really don't know, but for some reason, I have been on the verge of snapping at everyone and everything all day long.

So even with my terrible mood and harsh mental critics, I still think I got through the prologue (which I'm still considering ditching, even though it feels right) and chapter one.  So that's pretty good for a first day, right?  And with 33 chapters total (3 is my favorite number, so even though I ended up with 33 chapters by chance, I'm planning on trying to keep that amount all the way through), the whole process should only take about 17(ish) days, right?  I'm actually going to put that in my little notepad (a moleskin storyboard notebook I got with a Barnes n Noble gift card from my sister for Christmas-I'm going to try using it to keep track of edits I want to make and issues I find with the story).  Since keeping track of my progress and working with a goal in mind worked really well for me with the actual first draft, I think I need to keep that kind of accountability for the editing process.

The plan is to finish the editing, then read the whole thing again.  If the actual overall story sounds okay, I'll make little edits here and there (silly grammar errors and issues like using the wrong person's name) then send it to Dan to read.  I'm hoping that happens before the end of January.  Then more edits in February and maybe I'll be ready to query it out by March (...I turn 30 on March 3rd...).

So here's to getting through the rest of the edit days without too much aggravation!

Cheers!