Monday, April 22, 2013

Progress Begets Progress

See the arrow? Yeah you should totally look at that word count meter. Notice how it's moved? Probably significantly since you last looked at it, right? Yeah.

I've been editing. A lot. Alright, so it's not really that big of a number. But it takes me awhile to get through a scene. Many of them need entire rewrites. And I'm adding a lot of scenes as I go through. So I'm making progress, but also most of these scenes I would still count as first draft and are still labeled as such in Scrivener.

By the way, about Scrivener. It's awesome. If you don't have it, and you write anything, you should totally think about getting it. They even have a thirty day trial. FREE. You can see and read about and download Scrivener here. It works on both Mac and Windows, with the Windows updates being a bit behind. Don't worry about it, though. It's still awesome on Windows.

Okay, with that little bit out of the way, I'm going to talk a bit about editing. I know I had a post on how easier it's becoming for me to edit this the more I do it, but I don't think that's unique to me.

The more I edit, the more I want to edit. I'm putting the first layer of shine and polish onto these first scenes and chapters, and I'm beginning to see the potential. Which shows the potential of all the other scenes as well. That, in turn, makes me more excited for editing and so I go back to it with renewed vigor. It's a cycle. And a good one.

I'm no longer afraid to make it worse, because honestly, it couldn't be much worse. And that is SO freeing! I can (I think) only make it better.

So don't hold back! Edit away. But remember, keep a virgin copy of your first draft. So you know and remember all the hard work that went into it, and in case you do end up messing something up royally, or changing the plot and deciding it works better the old way, you have something to look back on.

Happy writing/editing!

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