SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Hiya ?

It was only a matter of time before I hit a roadblock with editing. Mainly because editing is a mammoth task, and like with any job this big, it’s inevitable to stumble along the way. And stumble I did.

Review 9th – 15th June 2022

Here’s what last week’s goal looked like:

• SWYM edit (structure) First half of Act IIA (scenes 1 – 8) of Running the Asset

Here’s How It Went

As with previous weeks, I’d planned on continuing my backwards trek through the manuscript. But, I’d forgotten one key fact. The story’s first half needs reworking; some of it needs new pages written to fit with the rejiggered outline.

But, even though there were a niggling worries about Acts I and IIA (the first half of the manuscript), I dove into dealing with Act IIA. Thursday was hard work, but it went well enough that I not only dealt with the scenes (one and two) I’d assigned myself for the day, but I got a third of the way through scene three.

As I worked on the rest of scene three on Friday, my pace ground to a halt. There were things in the scene that relied on unwritten (new) scenes in Act I. I brushed it off and jumped into scene four, with a note to revisit scene three after Act I is dealt with. And then I stalled again. More snags that relied on new/reworked scenes from Act I.

Admittedly, I could fudge my way through the scenes by relying on my scene blocking notes for Act I–they are highly detailed–but the results wouldn’t be great.

By Saturday, it was clear that I needed to change my approach. I needed to return to Act I, scene one, and work my way to the middle. But, there was a hitch. I was in Editor-Mode (think Action Man and his Eagle Eye switch), and there’s no way I can write in that frame of mind. I need a wee bit of psyching up time, a few days or so, to move that switch back to Writer-Mode.

This stumble did come with a huge benefit. While waiting to get back into Writer-Mode, I spent the rest of the week creating some much-needed breathing space. As I work 35+ hours a week on this whole writing thing, I find it a wee bit tricky to eke out time for blogging and pretty much everything else.

To create the breathing space, I drafted up a few Things in Scots posts, worked on the analytical bits of the edit–setting out the timing of character arcs, relationship arcs, and reveals for the story–and dealt with some non-work things that have been hanging over me.

This Week’s Goal

• SWYM edit (structure) Act I (scenes 1 – 4)

I’m looking at adding close to 10K new words this week–scenes 1, 2, and 4 are brand new; scene 3 is a rewrite. So, I’m banking on my writing speed being what it was back in April. ?

Writer-Mode activated. ? ?

That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by, and take care.