The amazing Margaret Madigan and I recently finished a first draft of a novel we're writing together. I love the characters, and the story line. Unfortunately, I don't love editing, and I'm guessing that I'm not alone.
The beautiful feeling of "I'm finally finished" gives way to the depression that comes when you review the writing. The "I suck" blues set in.
That's when I remind myself that "the first draft of everything is shit." Ernest Hemingway said so, after all.
If that doesn't make me feel better, I remember another of Hemingway's little maxims: "Write drunk, edit sober." Sadly, sober editing doesn't make me feel any better, so I chuck Hemingway out and look for a great writer whose advice I might like better.
Terry Pratchett reminds me to “Let grammar, punctuation, and spelling into your life! Even the most energetic and wonderful mess has to be turned into sentences.”
Apparently no one is about to let me off the editing hook. Even Joyce Carol Oates has something to say about my editing. "The first sentence can't be written, until the final sentence is written."
Fine. I give up. I'm off to edit.
