Editing

 

By yesterday afternoon I was feeling the pressure of the growing Next Big Project.  It was now large enough it was feeling cumbersome.  Before I continued generating more essays I needed to review what I had already done.

(Some people may wonder why I am sharing so much of the creative process of writing.  I'm doing it because I want people to know that every single book they have in their libraries, especially books about a craft, go through the same steps:  does it need to be written?  How does it need to be written?  Am I being clear enough?  How should the information be presented?  Photos?  Diagrams?  Etc.

As the process grows, imposter syndrome tends to kick in:  have I done the right thing?  Could I do it better?  How could I do it better?  Is this worth my time?  Will anyone but me care?  How many people will be disappointed in what I'm doing?  Other than me, that is.  Every Single Writer I follow on line, whether they are doing fiction or non-fiction seems to go through the same things.  I am not alone in this.  And I think it's good for the reader to understand that writing is also a skill, a craft, and subject to the same creative decisions and angst as any other creative endeavour.)

After putting the pages into a binder I began to see just how MUCH I have already done and knew that I'd better start in on the next stages of bringing a written project into material being.  Editing.  This would also allow me to review the content so far because I've been letting my sub-conscious choose topics, not following an outline.

I opened the binder, pencil and highlighter in hand and began reading.

So far edits are minor.  Mostly typos or small grammatical issues, adding a word here, a phrase there for clarification.  My mind knows what it meant when it wrote those words, but other people won't necessarily understand.  Some clarity is required.

But mostly?  It's ok.  I think it will do.  It is somewhat repetitive, but I doubt anyone will sit down and read all of the essays in one sitting and since it IS weaving I'm talking about, examining the same things from different angles, a little cross pollination is bound to happen.

The creation of cloth is both linear and non-linear.  Some repetition is going to factor into the equation.

Once I am done this initial review, I am going to send the lightly edited essays to someone I trust will give me honest feedback and see what they say.  This is one of the scary bits - finding out if my writing, my stories, are of interest to more than me and one or two of my close personal friends.  (Although most of my close personal friends ARE close personal friends because they are gently honest with me.)

But still.  I have already invested hours of my time in this project and I need to know now, before I invest much more, if it is worthy of being thrown into the wild.  

You may notice I am still fighting my inner demons - that interior critic.  Someone posted on line about wishing their inner demons would stop beating them up.  I posted saying that I wished mine would stop tying my shoelaces together to trip me up...

The more rational part of my brain is beginning to think that this project could go together a lot faster than anticipated.  (Remembering that Magic and The Intentional Weaver each took years in the making.)

So, first step?   Find out if the project is worth continuing.