Looking forward to the back burner
I’m up to page 66 in this editing business. There are a total of 180 pages right now. Although it’s nice to THINK I’m a third of the way through, I don’t think I actually am since there are so many holes to fill later on.
I’m doing a very half-assed pass through. Sometimes I lie in bed at night and realise things that I should’ve picked up and corrected. So I go back and correct them the next time I sit down. Hmm. I am too close to this text to do a proper edit. Today on Mary Catelli’s blog, I saw a post of hers about putting stories on the back burner once you’ve finished the draft. Which I absolutely agree with. Once I’ve done this pass, Molly’s Gift is being put down to simmer. (I was thinking of the term “back burner” and I assume it is a cooking phrase - turning down the heat on the back burner and letting something simmer there till it’s done)
My last story is still sitting there, turning into mush.
Oh, back burnering! How I look forward to that. I feel very meh about this story right now. I’m gnawing at it, resenting it for how long it is taking, dutifully obeying its wishes to be finished. Every night that I don’t edit, and fritter away my time on TV and the internet and crap like that, I am consumed with guilt. Nobody else is going to finish this story so just frickin do it already.
Cross-posted from kate-murray.com