Live Editing
Feb. 10th, 2013 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngLet's play a game.
I have 23 pages left to edit until I reach what I believe to be a final draft of this story. It's been driving me mad the past few weeks, eating away at the back of my thoughts until all I can think about are these edits and finishing, finally finishing what I believe to be a respectable and serviceable draft. The story finally feels cohesive, the plot finally feels round and whole, and all the subplots and useless characters have been disposed of. There are, I'm certain, still problems with it, but the major, plot-breaking ones have been (probably) taken care of, to such an extent that I feel done.
But it's not. I still have 23 pages to edit and tighten before I can throw my hat in the air and let my brain ooze out of my ears.
To avoid spending another week unable to think of anything else and unable to do anything else in my spare time, I'm making a final push to finish today. Normally this would be silly. A day in which I edit 10 pages is a good day, and I'm consistently bad on the weekends. But I think I can do it today. It's only 13k more words (I just checked). I'm not re-writing (completely). I'm just tying together threads and checking for consistency.
But to really push myself, I'm going to live blog it. Yeah. That's right. I'm going to check in every page / every hour and report. Until it's done. Or I quit. In which case, you can totally ridicule me.
2pm. Page 181/204. Oh god, the angst. Why is this character so angsty all of a sudden? Cut-cut-cut!
2:30 Page 182/204. Everybody loves descriptions of the weather! Said nobody. Ever.
3pm Page 183/203. Ah, good of you to finally come to that realization, MC. Now get moving.
3:14 pm Page 184/201 CUT ALL THE THINGS.
NAP TIME.
4:30pm TEA TIME
5pm 185/201 Chase scene! Also, tea for reals. Hoorah!
5:05pm Take a small break to write a cactopodes post. Because if there is no post tomorrow, some of my friends my lynch me.
5:20pm Fastest cactopode post ever. Back to edits! Where were we? Oh yeah, chase scene!
5:40 186/201 Chase scene over. Building towards climax. Hot?
5:45 187/201 That last was a half page, so kind of cheating, but not really. Things it is time for: getting up, petting cats, drinking ALL THE THINGS. Also, apparently baking Doug's pizza. It's fine.
6pm 188/201 "Arson, theft, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit treason, treason, disorderly conduct..." It's all cool.
6:15 189/201 Rhymes with PIZZA TIME
6:50 190/201 Pizza + short walk + first shot of rum. Need to calm down. All jittery and crazy and OMG I'M GOING TO TOTALLY FINISH THIS ONLY 11 PAGES LEFT
7:10 192/197 Extraneous scene is extraneous! DELETE IT ALL.
7:30 193/197 ...glglwrgjlhynrny....
7:45 194/196 Losing... steam... but so... close...
8:15 I'm pretty sure my brain has melted. Internet farting around has commenced. Come on! I can still do this! Just like, four more pages!!
8:30 195/197 I am so going to have to read these last 10 pages through one more time. Still, gotta make it count. Not going to be cognizant much longer.
8:45 196/197 I have no more words. All my words are used. Used!
8:56 THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE
8:57 THIS BOOK IS AWESOME
8:58 I HAVE NO IDEA
9pm 197/197 I THINK THIS IS THE END. I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE. CAPS LOCK FOREVER!
Whew. That was a very exciting afternoon. I'm pretty sure I would not have come anywhere close to finishing without having done the above. But as it is: I'm done! Holy shit! I still want to glance over those last few pages before sending it out to my betas, but. Wow. I think this is it. I think I can finally stop thinking about MA and maybe start thinking about, well, life. And maybe the next story.
Final stats, for those interested:
121,496 words, 197 pages, 26 chapters, only one on-page death. Which is a record for me. I think. <3
I have 23 pages left to edit until I reach what I believe to be a final draft of this story. It's been driving me mad the past few weeks, eating away at the back of my thoughts until all I can think about are these edits and finishing, finally finishing what I believe to be a respectable and serviceable draft. The story finally feels cohesive, the plot finally feels round and whole, and all the subplots and useless characters have been disposed of. There are, I'm certain, still problems with it, but the major, plot-breaking ones have been (probably) taken care of, to such an extent that I feel done.
But it's not. I still have 23 pages to edit and tighten before I can throw my hat in the air and let my brain ooze out of my ears.
To avoid spending another week unable to think of anything else and unable to do anything else in my spare time, I'm making a final push to finish today. Normally this would be silly. A day in which I edit 10 pages is a good day, and I'm consistently bad on the weekends. But I think I can do it today. It's only 13k more words (I just checked). I'm not re-writing (completely). I'm just tying together threads and checking for consistency.
But to really push myself, I'm going to live blog it. Yeah. That's right. I'm going to check in every page / every hour and report. Until it's done. Or I quit. In which case, you can totally ridicule me.
2pm. Page 181/204. Oh god, the angst. Why is this character so angsty all of a sudden? Cut-cut-cut!
2:30 Page 182/204. Everybody loves descriptions of the weather! Said nobody. Ever.
3pm Page 183/203. Ah, good of you to finally come to that realization, MC. Now get moving.
3:14 pm Page 184/201 CUT ALL THE THINGS.
NAP TIME.
4:30pm TEA TIME
5pm 185/201 Chase scene! Also, tea for reals. Hoorah!
5:05pm Take a small break to write a cactopodes post. Because if there is no post tomorrow, some of my friends my lynch me.
5:20pm Fastest cactopode post ever. Back to edits! Where were we? Oh yeah, chase scene!
5:40 186/201 Chase scene over. Building towards climax. Hot?
5:45 187/201 That last was a half page, so kind of cheating, but not really. Things it is time for: getting up, petting cats, drinking ALL THE THINGS. Also, apparently baking Doug's pizza. It's fine.
6pm 188/201 "Arson, theft, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit treason, treason, disorderly conduct..." It's all cool.
6:15 189/201 Rhymes with PIZZA TIME
6:50 190/201 Pizza + short walk + first shot of rum. Need to calm down. All jittery and crazy and OMG I'M GOING TO TOTALLY FINISH THIS ONLY 11 PAGES LEFT
7:10 192/197 Extraneous scene is extraneous! DELETE IT ALL.
7:30 193/197 ...glglwrgjlhynrny....
7:45 194/196 Losing... steam... but so... close...
8:15 I'm pretty sure my brain has melted. Internet farting around has commenced. Come on! I can still do this! Just like, four more pages!!
8:30 195/197 I am so going to have to read these last 10 pages through one more time. Still, gotta make it count. Not going to be cognizant much longer.
8:45 196/197 I have no more words. All my words are used. Used!
8:56 THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE
8:57 THIS BOOK IS AWESOME
8:58 I HAVE NO IDEA
9pm 197/197 I THINK THIS IS THE END. I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE. CAPS LOCK FOREVER!
Whew. That was a very exciting afternoon. I'm pretty sure I would not have come anywhere close to finishing without having done the above. But as it is: I'm done! Holy shit! I still want to glance over those last few pages before sending it out to my betas, but. Wow. I think this is it. I think I can finally stop thinking about MA and maybe start thinking about, well, life. And maybe the next story.
Final stats, for those interested:
121,496 words, 197 pages, 26 chapters, only one on-page death. Which is a record for me. I think. <3
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