April 7, 2013

Knowing When to Quit: ROW80 Update

Last week was all about editing. Not only did I have my editor's first round edits in hand, I was working through suggestions from four amazing beta readers. Although I'm grateful for all of their input, and I know my novel will be better for it, it was a lot to take in. My head was spinning.

I have what I like to call OED... obsessive editing disorder. I love the editing process, but I have a really hard time knowing when to quit. I'm convinced I could edit something until the end of time, so when is it good enough? Or, as my daddy always said, GED... good enough, dammit.

It's Sunday, time to check in regarding my A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) goals. 

Updates...
  • Publish Chasing Memories -- Edit #2 is done and back in the hands of my Editor, the lovely Jo Michaels
  • Survive the A to Z Blog Challenge -- Only done through H, so I plan to get through at least K tomorrow.
  • Map out the sequel to Chasing Memories - As I was editing this past week, plot points for Book 2 were bombarding me. I have notes everywhere (truly, I think I have written on every piece of scrap paper in my house). This week I plan to organize them and add details.
  • Make significant progress on the follow-up to Depression Cookies - The plan is to write two chapters this week. 
Note: In April, I am only going to do ROW80 updates on Sundays since I'm posting all the other days for A to Z. In May, I'll be back to Wednesday and Sunday posts.

Hope my ROW80 friends started Round 2 with a bang!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do several rounds of edits and still wonder if the work is good enough.

I was going to join ROW80 and even wrote a post, but I deleted it since the linky list to join closed. I saw it as fate since I'm doing A to Z this month and doing ROW80 updates on top of that would be stressful.

Tonja Drecker said...

It's hard to know when enough is enough. I use to think that at one point, it's good just to say 'that's it, let it be', but the last couple weeks, I was faced with a new lesson 'If your gut tells you it could be better, it can.' So, I'm at a loss at the moment on this one.

Kate Copeseeley said...

Never. It's never good enough.

I did a lot of editing last week, so I feel you. After the third or fourth pass, I start to feel like I'm obsessing. That's when I send it out to get proofed. Then I edit one more time.

Anyhoo... good luck with your edits and your writing.

Jo Michaels said...

I think you'll always want to add, take away, and change. It's your writer's imagination taking over as you re-read. There comes a point where you must let it go into the world and find its own legs to stand on. :) WRITE ON!

Anonymous said...

Great goals for this round! I'm excited about your book being almost done. Congrats, Tia!

S.H. Aeschliman said...

"When is it good enough?" Yes, exactly. This is why I wish I could afford an editor. Someone outside of myself to partner with me in my process and help me answer this question, as I do for my editing clients. I imagine your editor helps you with this, no?

In my experience so far, Kate C. is right: it's never good enough to suit me because it's never perfect. So the question for me becomes, "How much do I want to invest in this piece?" And then "good enough" becomes an equation of "enough time spent" + "would I feel excited about sharing this with other people?" Luckily I get easily excited these days about sharing my work with other people, even in draft form. =*)