I've Got the First-Novel Editing Blues

Lately, I've been fine tuning the novel I finished last March.  That still sounds odd, and a bit frustrating, when I think about it, because I always thought when I finished my first novel, life would suddenly change.  But I'm prepared to do the work to change it, and it begins with preparing my work to be submitted.

Oh my God, editing is a pain in the ass.  There is no cutesy or less offensive way to say it.  Especially for fellow writers who, like me, find themselves nitpicking over every single word.  I promise that earlier today, I rewrote a sentence 17 times.  It was perhaps more exhaustion that made me move on to the next sentence instead of truly being satisfied.  And I realize this is a problem.  The first rule of writing has always been to simply write.  Let the words flow and worry about editing later.  I'm not sure what the first rule of editing should be.  Prepare for headaches and self-loathing.  (I've called myself a hack of a writer more times than I care to admit.)

But I think this is a good thing.  Having that ability to say "Okay, this is crap!!", is the first step to becoming better.  And I get less frustrated because I realize that even though I finished the novel last March, I know I wasn't as satisfied with it as I want to be.  Eventually I want to write a work of fiction that gets my name added to this list.  

And the only way to get there is by putting forth the effort such an accomplishment deserves.

A little bit of patience certainly helps.

Marcus Jamison, the Rare Poet