Editing Time: When Do You Stop?

Yeah, I might have a wee problem.

Writer’s Life

I am a writer: a freelance writer, blogger, and ghost blogger. When I am not tackling those paid gigs, I work on a book about my travels through Africa, as well as a memoir about my journey through cancer with my husband.

I guess you could say I have a few irons in the fire.

When it comes to blogging, it is a relatively quick and easy thing. Think up a topic, do a little research, dash off a few hundred words, add a picture or two, finishing scanning and editing as necessary, then PUBLISH. I realize it is not always as easy as that, but blog articles are generally fairly short. That is the nature of blogging. It is quick to write, quick to read, but hopefully not entirely quick to forget.

Oh, plus complete a little invoicing for the paid blogging I perform.

My other projects aren’t quite the same process though. When I wrote my African Tale, I got smart. I figured that if I set myself to writing a new chapter each week via my blog, I would eventually write the whole story. And you know what? It worked! It took a while, but I managed to go from Canada, to Africa, and back again. The next step was to edit the story, add some pictures, and blend all the individual chapters together into a cohesive tale. Kind of like blogging in a way I guess.

Editing Time!

That is where I am stuck though. I have been stuck here a while. I re-read the original chapters, editing as I go, doing my best to flesh them out as necessary. Since the story was written when my writing styles were still a little green, there is plenty to work on. And every time I jump into the story, I find that I add new chapter titles, or new divisions between sections, or I completely rewrite sections. Which takes time. Lots of it apparently.

And I wonder if I will ever see the end of these projects.

I think it is time to pencil in daily editing to my work schedule or I’ll never see the end of Africa, let alone my other book. And speaking of that book, I have completely started it from the beginning again, but in a different voice! Will I ever get to the next phase? How about query letters, negotiations with editors, and all of that fun?

Editing disorder support group? Hmmm…