Finally editing

I did not a single hour of editing in March, mostly because my free time was spent either in applying for jobs or stressing over said applications. Yes, my story is important to me: but having a job is more so.

Of course, I still don't have a job, and the priority has stepped up from Pressing to Urgent, but there are absolutely no jobs on the horizon that I'm at all qualified for, that I haven't applied for.

And so: a weekend of editing.

It's good to be alone with my story, to work through it. It's good to have no real pressure (except that of time); I'm editing my first NaNoWriMo novel, and I don't feel any need for it to be good. It's even shockingly bad at some points, and that's OK — it's my first attempt, more to be laughed over and fondly remembered than to try to turn into anything publishable.

But it's my first attempt, and I'm extremely fond of this story.

I'm really looking forward to doing it: to finishing writing it; to giving it a super-quick edit (because the voucher expires within a fortnight, I can't edit it to perfection so there's no need to worry about trying to); to type-setting; formatting; doing the book cover; title page; author's note — all that fun stuff which "real" authors get and which just looks so fun.

The story's currently about 45000 words (it was 50k, but right after I won I had to go back and trim the really awful parts of it out), and may need another 20k or so before it's finished. I'd really like to get it mostly edited and the story finished this weekend — next weekend at the absolute latest. I have the beginning and the end all written, but I skipped some parts of the middle, so I need to go back and write that all in. Then after it's finished, I can get on to my true love of formatting and margins and cover-designing.

I should be a sub-editor. I want to be a sub-editor. A writer, too, on the side, but sub-editing's so interesting and just so damn fun.