January is National Novel Editing Month

Dear Friends,

Since many of you participated in National Novel Writing Month you may be hanging around asking yourself, so what do I do now? The problem with editing is that it's SO like writing, but worse. While doing NaNo you sent your inner editor on vacation and wrote like crazy. You made it, barely limping over the finish line and now, as December closes out you've finished your first draft. Perhaps, like me, you've put that bad boy away for the time being so you can come back to your writing with fresh eyes.

 

Well January is a new year and I announce here today, with just over a week to go, that January will be National Novel Editing Month. Pull those drafts out. It doesn't have to be the one you just finished and steel your inner editor. Doubt Monsters will no doubt be breathing down your neck. Self doubt and recrimination are right there, lurking between the pages of your draft. You must not let them win. You must protect this precious baby you brought into the world. You owe it to your child to let it have the full and glorious life you intended when you first dreamed the dream that became your WIP.

 

Yes, there will be shiny new ideas and rabid plot bunnies trying to derail you. But hey, pick a number of words to get through each day and EDIT THEM. They will not rewrite themselves. I'll be posting articles and links here about the editing process as well as the boring sentence diagraming stuff I promised.

 

And I will be here rooting for you guys to succeed! I want revised drafts in my inbox on Feb 1 people!

 

Love,

Melanie

 

PS. Sentence diagramming factoid of the day: A sentence is broken into two parts the subject (what the sentence is about) and the predicate (where the action is.) But predicate is a more controversial term than your second grade teacher led you to believe. There are two competing theories on what a predicate is. A predicate must contain a verb so action theory. It contains an argument (where the idea of the sentence is.) So under the second theory every single sentence you write is an argument in and of itself. What are you saying?