So I’ve learned something recently. It’s something that will come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever written anything and then tried to get it published through traditional channels. Like a big surprise. This will be something you’ve never heard before.

The process takes time.

Lots of it.

No. Really. Like truckloads cubed.

Oh. So that’s not news to anyone else? Damn.

/lightheartedsarcasm

Here’s what I’m running into. Knowing it takes time and actually living through it are two different things. And I’m not talking about the querying/publication bits. I’m stuck right now on the creation bits.

It’s been a long time since I tried to polish a brand new piece of work, largely because until a year or so ago, it’s not something I did. It’s something I thought I was doing, but not really. I’d write a novel or a story, I’d edit it for glaring errors and awkward phrasing, and I’d be done.

And then a year ago I did something I’d never done before. I did a full-blown rewrite. Several of them, really. Short stories and a novel. As in deleting paragraphs and pages and entire chapters and replacing them with things that brought the story back together. And I was, and still am, very happy with the finished piece.

Except now I’m staring at a couple of works that are pre-that state. And I still love them, but I look at certain things and I cringe and part of my brain knows how to fix them and the rest is like “why can’t it just be done. We can crank this out in a couple of days, right?”

Also, I’ve been reminded (again) that I don’t write description well. The things I notice in a room are not the things other people notice, and the same goes for my characters. So I say the floor has carpet and walls and paint and O. M. G. what is that guy wearing and can I think of an excuse to insert myself into their conversation about Firefly?

Where someone else might notice, oh, say, that the walls are flat gray, the carpet is industrial grade and hammered even though it’s only six months old, and there’s a faint scent of ozone in the air because the hissing in the background means there’s a leak in the heating ducts right above our four-foot high, white-noise patterned cubicle walls.

Someone came up with a solution for me. They’ve suggested I might try sticking to first-person narratives (not their exact words, but what I managed to take from it). I’m not big on the first-person thing, not for me anyway. I don’t mind reading it, but diving that deep into a character’s head, especially with some of my characters, is difficult on my psyche.

So, in short. I would like, please, if this revision could take itself from my thoughts and write itself while I sleep, changing itself to first person at the same time, and then I’ll come back in about a month and edit for consistency and flow.

Or, you know. Do it the way *normal* authors do and take the entire process one step at a time.

Hey, any of you out there want to bottle that and sell it to me? I have a stack of quarters, some peppermint lifesavers, and a stick of Orbit gum…oh, and my soul ^_^