Writing and Editing

I’m a fast writer.  My brain goes so quickly that pen and paper doesn’t work well at all, so I’m eternally grateful for the computer.  This natural tendency is a blessing while writing a new novel, especially for something like NaNoWriMo.  While I have my story fairly well planned out ahead of time, I can’t get too detailed or I find I can’t write as well.  The curse is that I end up with a lot of mistakes and occasionally forget to put in some details that I intended but ended up chasing another scene and am remiss about leaving myself a note.  That eventually all needs to be cleaned up.

For me, getting the words out of my head is the important thing.  Once they’re out, I have something to play with and mold into what I want it to be.  That means that I spend a lot of time editing.  In fact, I probably spend more time editing than I did writing the initial story in the first place.  Which is fine with me.  I love to edit.  I know a lot of writers find editing tedious and they dread it, but not me.  I enjoy switching over to my left brain from time to time to really get analytical.  It’s almost like a break for me.

Yes, I know I’m probably an oddity because of that, but believe me, it’s not the first time.  I’m an ambivert.  What’s that?  It’s a mix between and extravert and an introvert.  There are times that I’m in desperate need of social interaction to fill me up and then days later I just need to be alone.  Surprise, or no surprise. That’s usually when I can be found writing. Or editing.

I’m about to start editing the series of stories I wrote this summer.  I’ve had a few people read the first book.  I know I have edits to make.  I always do, but this time around, I’m nervous about the amount.  I’ve never written 250,000 in 10 weeks before.  That’s a lot!  I just kept writing and didn’t stop.  Most times I go back and tweak here and there.  With my book Fall Into You, I wrote that very quickly because I couldn’t sleep due to being on Prednisone for a cough that refused to go away.  I was hyper and only able to sleep for about 4 hours a night at the time, so I had a lot of extra hours in my day.  And then I edited for a year.  I won’t edit for a year again because that’s a bit ridiculous, especially if I want to get another book out.

Somehow, I have to make sure that this next book is edited as well but in 1/12 the time.  Cross your fingers for me?  I could really use the luck.

Thoughts?

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