100 hours of novel-editing in one month in Berlin

If you haven't heard from me for a while, I've been doing a novel-editing marathon! 

The wins: 

• I've been spending time in some lovely places, and really enjoyed myself! Like this cafe in Hufelandstrasse, Prenzlauer Berg. Also, a treehouse in a children's playground, and my writing desk at home (pic below).
• I worked my way through 4 chapters (about a quarter of the novel) - so I now I know I have to allow 300 more hours!
• I kept running, and ran 10K
• I've lost a stone. Only minor bad behaviour with a bag of nuts and a box of chocolates in the final days

The hurdles:

• We haven't had any internet connection at home, or phone line, and so I've become hopelessly disconnected from everyone - apologies
• I've forgotten all the German I learnt before this month started
• Too many espresso macchiatos

Now I know a few more things about the creative process, and can plan the next one better! (Two weeks, then a healthy week, then two more - that's as long as I can last before entering caffeine hyperspace)

NaNoEdMo: News from halfway through an editing process

I want to say how it is right now. Just over halfway through the editing process. Just under halfway through my material. A week into NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month). Sweating, under pressure. It was sunny, now it's cloudy again.  

Character doubts

My main character suddenly looks really thin and I don't know her. I read this super inspiring thing - Occupy Steve - on the Office of Letters and Light Blog. Haven't got a hope in hell of occupying my character unless I do some development - don't really have the time to get too waylaid. 

Concept doubts

My book idea suddenly looks totally unsellable. Was I even thinking of whether it would sell? As usual, no. I don't approach ideas like that. I wish I did. I just wrote the only idea I had. I wrote a pitch for Pitchapalooza. That took about 23 hours as well! I'm not sure if it was worth it. In theory, it should help sharpen your plot ideas. I think it did ... It was sooo difficult. I couldn't work out if my idea didn't sound jazzy enough when I wrote it down, or was it just too damn complex for a 250 word pitch? Anyway, it's done now. Maybe I'll be able to pitch it better in a year's time when it's done! 

Other things in the how'm I doing section:

Keeping in touch with friends

Improving - I went into my own island there for about a month. Now I've had some health problems that have jolted me out of it, thankfully. 

Destructive writing habits

I'm alcohol-free!

Caffeine-free!

I'm working on my Toast Problem. If anyone's a specialist in this area, please refer me to them. 

Total hours spent editing since start of Feb: 80 hours

Words edited: 27,000 + pitch written + rereading twice + character work

Head Space animation with gorgeous soundtrack

March 1:  Start of NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) officially. 

To celebrate relaxed beginnings, and to feel like I've actually FINISHED something even when the editing work is very much ongoing, here's an animation I made last year, my talented radio producing friend Sarah Cuddon and talented musicians Cabinet of Living Cinema did the soundtrack for. 

HeadSpaceAnimation from Laura Eades on Vimeo.

Five and a half lessons when getting started editing

1. Unexpected bonus
If your writing is quite crap to begin with, editing is even more fun, because it's really easy to make tangible improvements in the editing process.

2. Plateau
The first chapter is way easier than the second, because you have all your cards in your hand. It's easier to create suspense and arouse curiosity. Continuing is harder, so it's just good to know that in advance so it doesn't feel like a drag when it comes to it.

3. Ship's log
Keeping a little graph notching up your hours (just like notching up your word count in Novel-writing November) really helps.

4. Jigsaw-pieces of time 
Two half-hours make an hour. So grab really small bits of time in the knowledge that, like budgeting, it all adds up. Put your headphones on, take a deep breath, and go underwater

5. Continuity
Don't leave more than two days without doing any, or you'll waste a whole session just rereading back up to where you've got to. Do it every day, and you'll not forget where you are and what you were part-way through.

5 & 1/2. Zoom in, zoom out
Having said that, if you do have a couple of days off, your technical eye sharpens considerably. You can suddenly see clearly that a character is too negative, or that you need to string along a mystery better, or plant the seeds of an upcoming storyline.