The Waiting

I feel as if I'm in limbo.

I am working on a sequel to Out of the Darkness. This will be Tina's story and I'm calling it Into the Light. But it's hard to get the creative juices flowing when I'm not sure how some of the editorial changes my editor is going to want for OTD will affect ITL.

Minor changes won't affect how I write the second story, but if she suggests something major, like, lets say a name change, then that could be a problem. Of course, I can always do edit, select all, and change, but I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. Technology isn't always my friend and I've made changes like that before only to proofread later and find weird text changes, despite selecting "whole word only" and "match case."

So, those kinds of edits are things I'd rather avoid if I can. But I am writing. I'm just slow. Then again, I've never been the world's fastest writer. Life and my "real" job have a tendency to get in the way of my fun job. And writing is fun. I love it when everything clicks and I know exactly what comes next. It's when I don't know what's coming next that I hate. And that usually happens in the middle. And I hate the middle. That dreaded sagging middle.

One thing I have learned about myself as a writer is that I don't mind edits. In fact, I sometimes think I'd rather edit than create. Once I finish a book, I sometimes edit it to death because I can always find some way to make it better. I think I'm anal that way.

I once opened a fortune cookie and it said, "Be satisfied with one chapter at a time."

I taped it to the base of my monitor and have taken the advice to heart. I think maybe that's one reason I write so slowly. I try to perfect each chapter before moving on and then I just get bogged down. And then, once I finish a manuscript, I still want to edit it to death. So, that's one reason I don't think I'll have a problem making line edits. I think what's going to drive me bonkers is seeing mistakes I didn't catch myself after the thousands of times I proofread it!

So, for me right now, the biggest problem I'm having with my writing career is waiting.

I can't say it's easy.