Edits - my August challenge

My edits are going well; it's half way through my challenge month yet I’ve past the midpoint in this book – which feels good. I can’t explain how much I dislike this task in the book writing process, but I truly do. Give me a blank page any day, I’ll fill it. I have to make editing as enjoyable as I can in order to complete the job as swiftly as possible. I opt for many psychological tactics appeasing to my ‘reward system’ which have evolved and worked in the past. I’d hate to count how many times I ‘good girl’ myself in any one day!   

So far, I have rearranged the scene order, increased the pace in the middle, introduced some new elements for a couple of character by tying my story into a big knot before unscrambling it, so far! I'm sure it'll resemble a giant knot at least twice more before the month ends.

​The downfall of editing each day is that my brain doesn’t wish to focus on the text instead she wants to tease me with a brand-new sparkly idea. A new idea that needs to line up behind the previous brand-new sparkly idea that arrived a few weeks ago. Seriously, brain, one book idea at a time, please! As usual, I duly noted the basic premise, so I could mull it over whilst I edited. Sadly, or gratefully as I am eternally thankful for my imagination, that wasn’t enough for her. Like a sulky child, she kept on interrupting my editing time by throwing snippets of the idea to such an extent that it risks becoming a distraction to what I’m trying to complete. I’ve actually set aside time later today so I can have an hour of plan playing enabling me to jot the details on post-it notes – in hope that’ll it quieten my head allowing me to focus without getting derailed from my current editing. I’ve already got my idea for November’s NaNoWriMo, so this fresh idea will simply need to patiently wait in line. Hopefully after my ‘play session’ I can settle for the remaining two weeks and complete another read through of this manuscript before deciding the next steps. 

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