Edits

Worked for 12 hours this weekend (six one day, six the other) on my final round of revisions on my manuscript. I had gotten 3 pages of notes from my agent. Many of them were tiny tweaks (ah, I love the tiny tweaks – mainly because they only involve me highlighting the text in question – if I agree with the edit, that is, and I am always free to say “no” – although I better have a damn good reason – and pressing DELETE) … and then there was a major re-ordering that had to happen. Agent had suggested it – and I shuffled stuff around, until I finally saw what she was saying. She was right. Move this piece to this section, put this piece as the first piece in that section … You know, I’m too close to the book now. To me, the way it is is THE WAY IT IS … which is why I’ve been eager to have friends and others read it … because it’s not good (at this stage, anyway) to get too rigid about that stuff. I am very rigid when it comes to certain things (and rightly so). I won’t be told to make certain types of edits – things that will change the tone or the feel of the book. I will not have my VOICE messed with, because I have confidence in it, and I won’t change it. Thankfully, my agent loves my voice. It is the most important part of our relationship right now – and having had experiences with other publishing people who DON’T get my voice, and who read my stuff wondering, “Hmmm … why doesn’t this sound like Sex and the City, because THAT is the book I want to sell and you’re a single girl of a certain age and why doesn’t your book sound like THAT? Because aren’t you all the same?!” … having an agent “get” my voice to such an intuitive degree is (hopefully) money in the bank. Because she gets it, she can sell it to others.

So there’s that. None of the tweaks had to do with altering the voice.

I knew it was going to be a big job – the tweaks – and I had scanned over her list, checking them off in my mind – “okay, I can do that, yup, that one’s easy … Nope, not gonna do that one, and here’s why … no problem with this one … fine …”

I had missed one tiny note from her though, which I came across on Sunday, during working on it.

“I think you need to somehow reflect the global economic collapse in this piece.”

ARGH!!! How had I missed that? Why hadn’t I seen it in my first scan of her notes?? That was a big change – and she was right – the fact that the economic collapse was not reflected in that particular piece had bothered me. As a matter of fact, when the “crash” came last fall, did I worry about my finances? No. Did I feel concern for the fate of the world? Not at all. Did I angst and moan and pore over the financial section of the newspaper? Hell no. My first thought was of that essay in my book, and I felt a bit uneasy about it. “Hmmm. I wonder if it’s okay to NOT update it??” So I can’t say I’m surprised that that was one of her notes to me, but I admit I had been putting it off, hoping it would be okay … in my typical writer’s-procrastination way.

This was not a tiny tweak. This would involve major re-writing.

Which I did. It involved me changing the tense of the piece (a much more difficult thing than you would think – very very detailed work), and re-writing the whole thing.

It was one of those funny moments (or, not so funny in the moment) where you realize: Okay. You need to get your shit together, Sheila. It’s all well and good to feel that you are “off the hook” and can just make your tiny tweaks. That’s part of work, too. But you cannot avoid the major work you need to do on THIS piece and it cannot be put off any longer. You knew it in October – you KNEW this piece would need to be rewritten – but last fall I could barely eat or sleep, let alone re-write anything.

So the day of reckoning has come.

It took me three hours, but it’s done.

I had to laugh though.

Her notes to me went like this:

1. Maybe on page 83 you don’t need the second paragraph. You have already said that. See page 11.

2. I think the last piece in this section actually needs to be the first.

3. The third paragraph on page 179 is redundant. I think you only need the first sentence.

4. Please boil down the economic global collapse for us in no more than one page. Mkay? Thanks.

DONE.

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6 Responses to Edits

  1. Lou says:

    When is your book coming out?

  2. Kelly says:

    Can not wait much longer, but I will.

  3. Cara Ellison says:

    The changing of the tenses! Oh my goodness, it is actually very delicate work, that. Like literary surgery.

    Good for you, hon. I’m proud of ya!

  4. red says:

    Cara – I had to end up reading it out loud because that was the only way I could catch all of the tenses that were out of whack.

    Definitely like surgery!!

  5. Jill says:

    Let us know when we can pre-order it on Amazon. I love your writing!

  6. nightfly says:

    Editing is so tough. My bad habit is usually editing while writing… going back and saying “Nope, no, nada, ugh, pfft, FAIL,” and then three weeks later figuring out that the first draft had bits I needed.

    Chalk me up for a copy of this when it’s done!

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