Evil Editors Unite!

OK, forget NaNoEdMo. Some Kiwis are doing a shorter version of it which they're calling "Evil Editors Unite" — twenty hours' editing during March. Fifty hours, I almost certainly can't do. Twenty, I almost certainly can, although it'll still be a big effort. But I think I'll go for that one, now.

In other news, hadn't recovered from over-tiredness as well as I thought I had. After dinner I kinda stretched out on the couch until Dan gently got me up, walked me down the hall, into the bedroom, lay me down, pulled off my boots and put the blanket over me. With a vague murmur of "OK I'll have a quick nap... but only for twenty minutes...", I pretty much instantly lost consciousness and refused to be woken for an hour and a half.

But this week should be a lot easier. I didn't do overtime today, and probably won't the rest of the week due to other commitments.

And I still, of course, need to fit in about an hour a day of editing. I'm actually quite looking forward to it. I think I'll go back to my first novel rather than my most recent one. My first one's much more absurd — mostly because I had planned very little for it and was making a lot up as I went along (I don't know what my characters should do now. Oh, I know, I'll make them magically disappear and go into another realm by mistake). But I don't think there's a huge amount to go to finish it.

I wonder if finishing counts as editing? I suspect not, but no matter; it's finishing that I need to do. I want to get these two stories done so I can get the hard copies of them, and time's rapidly running out for that; my first voucher expires in April. There's no point to me in getting unfinished stories printed. Even getting unedited stories printed will be annoying; printing an unfinished story would just be pointless.

Tomorrow, I need to actually put my money where my mouth is, though. We'll see how that goes.

NaNoEdMo

May I have a few extra hours? That would be great. One more every day for sleeping in, a couple for hanging out with my boyfriend and other friends, and of course an extra two hours or so every night for writing. Plus a few more hours during the weekend would be just spiffy.

But that's OK. I can make it fit. I'm recovered from last week, and am happily looking forward to all the extra moolah I earned with my overtime.

This month I'd really like to complete NaNoEdMo (Editing Month — fifty hours of editing time), simply because I want to get two of my NaNoWriMo novels finished (just a first draft — but I want the stories finished, no skipped scenes or cut-off endings). Getting a first draft is one step closer to getting a novel ready to be submitted to a publisher, though I'm starting to doubt I can get that done in time for my 101 deadline — 18 February 2010. That's less than a year away, and I haven't yet finished the first draft, let alone reworked, rewritten, rewritten again, edited, line-edited, shown to test readers, rewritten again, line-edited again....

Still, that's a few steps down the road for me yet. For now, focus on the next: fifty hours of editing in March. (And painting the house on the good days. The breakfast bar is now nearly finished, thanks to the rainy weather on the weekend making exterior work impossible.)

But ye gods, fifty hours in March — that's nearly two hours a day. I don't think I actually have that amount of time. And you can't exactly push yourself to do it faster like you can with NaNoWriMo.

I don't go into NaNoEdMo aiming to succeed. Just hoping to get closer to my personal goal: finishing the first draft of one itty bitty novel.

Overtime

Ye gods, I'm exhausted. I'm so stressed, and my feet hurt, and my legs hurt, and my back refuses to relax. I'm so tired. At least I'm better than yesterday, when I was so tired I got dizzy, had to hold on to a table to stop from swaying, was getting double vision from sheer exhaustion.

I feel much more tired than yesterday. Maybe it's a delayed reaction thing. Overtime today, overtime Tuesday. At work for thirteen hours. Thirteen hours of a good working environment, but I get myself so stressed out trying to do all of my work perfectly, crossing every t, dotting every i. I haven't had an error since I started at work; I want to keep it that way. But doing my work perfectly means I'm slower than pretty much everyone else who races through and doesn't check what they should be checking.

I'm so tired.

I don't want work to claim my life, so on Tuesday I specifically did not go to go to bed as soon as I got home. I don't want to leave work, go to bed, get up and go to work again. That's not a good life.

On the other hand, a life where I was less tired would certainly be a better life. I need to go to bed earlier. I get doing things — applying for jobs — and get a second wind. I think my body gives up on getting sleep.

Like when I've been working till 8pm and my body's just figured it isn't going to get dinner (we usually eat around 5.30pm) and has stopped being hungry so that when I do get my dinner at 8.30, 9 o'clock-ish, I'm no longer hungry. Body just gives up and gets on without sleep and food.

Which is very nice of it in the short term, but less healthy in the long.

Anyway. I'm rambling. I'm going to have a shower and go to bed.

Sleep....