The Big Edit

I relieved to tell you that I started editing this week.  It was grating on me how bad it was and how I could fix it if I did this, that, and the other.  So now I'm going in and fixing things and it's like a bad note easing into tune.

Actually, I haven't fixed anything yet.  I printed off the whole thing, and now I'm going through it and making notes on what needs fixing.  Purple pen is for line edits--typos or things that should be crossed out or easy additions.  It's for things I know right this second how to fix. 

Pink is for global issues--how to deal with back story, characterization issues, relationships that need flushing out, strands I picked up then forgot.  This is where I've put the most thought as I've been writing.  It's the stuff that's been eating at me and that I'm dying to fix.  It's what I'm most excited about and what's going to take the most time.

Orange pen is for awkwardness.  When pumping out this draft, I didn't check my thesaurus or sit and glare, thinking "that's not quite the right word.  The one I want is more...angry and means...organized. Organized, but in an angry way?  What's that word?" I'd just write orangranized and move on with my life.  but now it's time to find out what that word is.  Orange is also for paragraphs that could flow better, that could have rhythm, that could scan, but are right now just a horrible mess.

Green is my proper noun color.  It's for all the places I didn't name a spell and glazed over hinting at the vast history behind the magic.  It's where I didn't name a side character or where I hate the name I gave.  Green is also known as my John Hodgman color.  John Hodgman says that "specificity is the soul of wit," which matches pretty closely with how I think about world building.  I try to do this in my writing, but I'm still working on not being too vague on this blog.

Now, what you haves to understand is it is ones of my life goals to be frenemies with John Hodgman, so whenever I talk about my John Hodgman pen, you have to imagine I'm doing it with an affected sneer. 

I should note that I have no idea why I want this.  It seems like something that would fit with my vision of the person I want to be.  It also implies that I would regularly interact with John Hodgman and we would be friends, just friends who show affection through rudeness.  We'd bicker on twitter, and write insulting blurbs for each other's books ("better than expected" "pretty good if you're into that kind of thing").  I have no idea how as to make this happen, since picking stupid fights with him on twitter with our current relationship just makes me a troll.  In my head, one day we'll meet at an important authors party (which exist in my fantasy, thanks) and we'll get into an argument over the mini quiches and how I'm not specific enough when writing blog entries.