Writing a Novel is Easy - It's the Editing that Sucks.

"I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose," -Stephen King

Something I've learned about myself is that I can write a first draft in a breeze. About a year, and I have a mess of a first draft - but it's done.  Full of long and hard hours of cranking out emotions and characters and words.

And I thought I would just have to polish the plot, add a few things for depth, and clean up the grammatical errors and such.

But no.  Editing sucks so much.  It's boring.  Clicking through paragraph after paragraph to just change a word.  Formatting?  Shoot me in the foot.  Spelling? Gag me with a knife. And don't even get me started on the actual hardest part which is cutting scenes, reworking paragraphs, changing backstories, adding scenes.  Pounding and melting and shaping my story like metal in a hearth.

I hate it.  I hate it because it's boring.  I hate it because I love developing a story, I love writing scenes and spending time with my characters.  But with editing, I get to do none of that.

One of the reasons that I have been spending more time with my blog is because now that I have finished my story, I truly have nothing to write. And I have to write.  It's a way of life. If I don't empty my mind, I'll surely go mad.  And without a story, it feels like I am on the brink of insanity.

And having nothing to write fills me with an odd feeling.  Without a story to weave, what is my purpose?  It feels like everything meaningful in my life has been sucked away now that I no longer have a novel to focus my energy on.

Writing it is the easy part.  Because that's exactly what I am - a writer.

Plotting is slightly harder, since we're fabricating something from nothing.  But it's doable.

Editing is shit. It's unfun and dull and boring. Devoid of emotion and like sweeping a floor. Menial and awful.

The only way that I can keep myself motivated to edit is the potential my story has.  If I keep my eyes on the prize, maybe then the bloodshot eyes and hunched shoulders and unenthusiastic work wouldn't be so menial.

Because my words are anything but.

~The WordShaker