I Hate Editing

It's one of the prevailing truths of the universe: the toilet paper will always run out when you need it most, the phone will always ring when you settle in to watch a movie, and writers hate editing. I am a writer, therefore I hate editing, right?

Writers are put on this planet to create in an inspired frenzy that leads to a completed work where every word is a work of art, and each plot point is a sublime delight. Changing even the smallest phrase would diminish the whole. It is perfect as it flows from our fingers!

Of course after we walk away from a project for a while we find these small things that need... repairing. Does Frank have three or four fingers on his right hand? Is Sally's husband named Larry or Leroy? Did they really have cell phones and Facebook in the 1700's? As welcome as a fly in the pudding, we find that our mortal flesh has interrupted the flow of the perfect story that lived in our brains and inserted all this... wrong... stuff in our work. Like fishing the invading insect from my dessert, removing such detritus is a manual effort. And so with a heavy heart we writers begin on that horrid progress called editing.

This is what much of my time is involved in right now. Just yesterday I finished the first pass edits for Stolen Time, the sequel to Borrowed Time. It's a great feeling to get that done, but the reality is I plan to do two more passes before I turn it over to the Pianoeditor and her dreaded fourteen-inch long Pencil of Doom. Then there will be at least a couple of passes out of that. Oh woe is me! Will this torture never end?

For a while there I would have that same lament when I sat in the dentist chair. Having a dentist in my formative years who went to the Josef Mengele School of Dentistry gave me a rather negative view of the profession as a whole. So for a while I just didn't go. Then after I got married I started going to a new dentist, and hating every minute of it. I would sit there with my white-knuckled hands in my lap and endure. As the years passed I found my time in the chair got easier and easier, although I would always anticipate a visit with fear and trepidation. After a while I began to notice that my time at the dentist wasn't unpleasant, and that the men and women who worked on me were competent professionals who were concerned about my comfort. I finally realized that the reluctance and fear I felt about a visit to my dentist were not based on my recent experiences. I was able to put aside that angst and the whole process became much more pleasant.

I recently made a similar mental breakthrough in regards to editing. Ignoring my writer's mantra of "I hate editing," I realized I enjoyed getting back into Ness Relevant's world. Even though I was fixing, trimming, and sometime adding to my story as opposed to downright creating, the emotions I had wrapped around the process did not match up with what I felt while doing it.

Now I am not going to strike up the violin music and proudly proclaim "I LOVE EDITING!" While I've realized that I enjoy the process of making my novel better, it is a different feeling from outright creation. Also, there still are some things that I downright dislike, such as:

• Time - This is probably the biggest complaint I have against editing. It took me just 30 days, and probably a minimum of 60 hours, to write Stolen Time as part of NaNoWriMo 2009. It will take much longer than that to get through this editing process. Since I will be podcasting this novel, which is a whole other time-sink, I just wanna get this done so I can move on to the recording!
• Repetition - Being someone who writes time travel stories where my characters might experience the same events from different vantage points, the repetition can be mind boggling. Did he bite the apple the first time through this scene, or the second time? Both times? After a while it all seems to blend together.
• Killing My Babies - Without a doubt Pianoeditor will find some stuff to cut in this book, and as sure as God made baby poop stink she will inevitably pick my favorite scene or a section that contains my favorite line.Then begins the subtle dance of whining and pleading before I finally give in and do what she recommends.

 So I will do my best to stay away from the blanket statement "I hate editing" in the future. Just as I don't appreciate the needle when the dentist needs to numb me up, I shouldn't let the aspects of the "E-word" I don't like color the entire experience.

And now, I think it time to begin round two of my editing merry-go-round. Back to the chair I go...

Am I a Writer?

Am I a writer?

I know, that seems like a stupid question. After all I have written four novels since 2008. I have two novels released as podcasts, and another is planned for release this year. I have an ebook for sale that can be read on any ereader or computer that exists. So what am I doing asking if I'm a writer here on the website I use to promote my work?

The reason I'm pondering this question comes from a number of podcasts I've listened to recently. I have a few writing shows that are staples on my Zune, but I also subscribe to the meta feeds of most of the major podcast novelists out there. You know: Sigler, Lafferty, Sawyer, Lester, and a few others. Sometimes they release interviews and discussions about the craft of writing, and I find them all interesting.

Yet one concept that has crept up a time or two is the question: Who is a writer? Or rather, what is a writer? I have heard it said by some (and I'm not naming names here) that in order to truthfully wear the moniker of "writer,"  a person must be working toward a publishing contract and a full time writing career.

Thus is my conundrum born. To date I have been writing and podcasting mainly because I enjoy it, and to see what others think of my work. I've not done much of anything to find a contract with a publisher of any size. As I mentioned I do have Borrowed Time for sale as an ebook, but I'm not going to be replacing my day job income with that any time soon. So while my status may change in the future, up until now I've treated my writing as more of a hobby than a career. That being the case, do I deserve to call myself a writer? Does the term inherently include the connotation of a full-time career?

If I accept the judgement that if I'm not trying to achieve financial success through my writing I am not a writer, what should I call myself? A hack, scribbler, or word-slinger? If the W-word is off limits, am I allowed to use titles such as author or novelist? My head swimmeth!

In an attempt to answer this, let's look at what I do with my little hobby here. In the last three years I've written three NaNoWriMo novels of 60-70k each. Last year I wrote another novel in addition to that. That alone is a labor of hours. The NaNo novels alone probably take around 60 hours each just to write.  I'm sure I probably spent at least twice that editing The Guerrilla Poet, and am well on my way to doing the same thing for Stolen Time.

I've put in the long hours writing and editing my work, just like any professional writer. I work on plot, characters, and theme. I try to improve what I create to make my stories constantly better. I have a backlog of novels to edit and to write. I'm starting to think about November and doing another NaNo novel this year. Even though I was considering sitting it out to get some editing done, I can hear it calling to me. Holy typewriters, Batman! I sound like a writer!

And a writer is what I consider myself. In my opinion there is no connotation in the W-word of professional status.  While it might be tempting for some to try to draw a distinction between those who get paid to put words on a page, and those of us who don't, there really isn't that much to separate us. If I'm sitting next to a bestselling author at Starbucks and we're both writing, we won't look much different in what we are doing (except he'll have the expensive drink, and I'll just be downing the plain-Jane coffee!)

So I'm standing up for all of the unpublished, unsigned hacks everywhere. The scribblers and bibblers who spend countless hours hunched over a keyboard or notebook and laying down phrase after phrase. Word-slingers who anonymously frequent coffee shops and libraries to inspire their muse. Take up your mantle and be proud! You are writers!

As am I.

I am a writer.