JRR Tolkien was the absolute master of retro-revising a book he had already published. He put The Hobbit out into the world as a cute, light children's story. Then he was asked to write a sequel, and somehow The Lord of The Rings happened. To make that story work, it was suddenly necessary to make that convenient and helpful magic ring from the first book retroactively become The Source Of All Evil. To make this plausible, Bilbo's finding of the ring and relationship with it needed to be extensively rewritten. So Tolkien managed this by publishing a follow-up edition of The Hobbit where the Bilbo-Gollum chapter was COMPLETELY different (along with various other edits). He pulled this off by cleverly writing it into the LOTR canon that Bilbo originally published his "Red Book" (on which The Hobbit was supposedly based) with a false account of finding the ring, and that he did so because of the ring's evil influence over him. Then, later, he rewrote it and told the truth. But you can still find real-world copies of the original version of The Hobbit where Gollum was actually willing to give Bilbo the ring. (Existing copies of this apparently sell for thousands of dollars now.)
I have several projects to finish but keep putting off. If I just did them and got them over with, I know I'd feel that sense of relief when done. I need someone like an editor to motivate me! Since it's just me, it's amazing how easy I am to ignore.
A meteor strike on our backyard would be an improvement. It might take out the moles. Maybe.
James, now you know why I went into technical writing. As long as it's accurate, no one cares. Besides, we all know that no one reads software manuals anyway.
I now understand the appeal of technical writing. You explain how to operate the thing and you're done. You don't need to justify the feelings of the toaster.
Ironically, in my experience, the technical manuals most urgently needed are generally not the ones that are well written, but the ones with poor grammar or spelling - or in a foreign language, where you have to look high and low for a colleague to translate.
As a grant writer, I'm very sympathetic with the post-deadline scramble to catch up on the rest of life. I do my best writing when a deadline is looming so close that I HAVE to drop everything else in my life and focus exclusively on what I am writing. But that means that once the grant is submitted and I collapse into a mental limp rag, all those undone chores (and the grants I'm writing for other clients) are staring me in the face. This next month is going to be particularly rough. After two or three months of worryingly slow business, I suddenly have at least six things due between now and February 1. That includes two MAJOR proposals for two different clients that are due January 31, and a third one for a third client due February 1. I can only imagine what mush my brain will be by the time I get that third one submitted.
I'm currently preparing for this by taking today completely off from all thoughts of work. It can be hard to keep those thoughts out when the upcoming calendar looms over me, but I really do need the rest before I plunge into it.
I know this feeling all too well. Even when you're "relaxing," those dark clouds are looming on the horizon. I have a feeling February 2nd is going to be the best day of your life. Either that or you'll sleep the whole day.
I hope you'll have now plenty of time to relax and spend with family and friends - you deserve it. I have similar feelings on putting sth out of my mind and trying to write it down, even though I'm far from being a professional, desribing nowadays mostly my memories (yet I found it tough not to miss some details). I try turing what I remembered into a text to the best of my ability, but still sometimes lack words to depict things. But I'm more then convinced the effort you put into the edits will flourish in a great read, to which I look forward.
I liked the anegdote abouth the house - I'd say it's exactly what developers do with video games, especially what Valve did with Counter-Strike 2 (as for me the game premiered way too early, as if it was open beta). Only in the devs' case instead of saying nothing can be done they usually slowly try to cover the imperfections with lots of patches.
Remember when games came out on cartridges and discs as finished products? Nowadays, they require a day one "patch" that's bigger than the actual game. I'm kind of glad I can't patch books. Otherwise I'd never be done.
My oldest son used to work for a game tester place, he loved it but it didn't pay a lot, but he was able to do it from home during Pandemic, so I was thrilled because at least he didn't have to come back home and live lol
James: kudos on finishing the edits! I greatly admire people who can write coherent novels - when I attempt to write something long, I tend to get lost in the plethora of possible “forks in the road” for the plot. If I ever realize the dream of publishing a book, it‘ll have to be a children’s book.
Don't give up! I have many books that got lost at those forks and never saw the light of day, but when one finds its way out of the woods, it's a wonderful feeling. Until the editing starts...
My house was always in a state of controlled chaos when the kids were growing up. I was always putting off the deep cleanings to spend time and experiences with my kids. Do not regret a single moment.
I think humans are genetically programmed to procrastinate. We all know a few of the people who jump on a task as soon as it’s handed to them, they are the anomalies. It’s great news you survived the edit. Hopefully you have it all polished and shiny and won’t need anything else done to it! Congratulations on finishing your second fiction novel!
I look forward to the editor writing back, "This is perfect, nothing more needed." That last sentence is the greatest work of fiction I've ever written.
As a recently retired proofreader/copy editor, I detect (and understand) the simultaneous distress and gratitude when the editing begins in earnest. You’ve got this!!
P.S. Are you familiar with Dave Barry’s song “I’m in Love with a Proofreading Woman” with the Rockbottom Remainders?
My dad always took off the week before Christmas and the following week off work and was home with nothing to do for those two weeks. I could not understand why my mom hated that time of year so much until I was a lot older.. My husband had 5 days off before and after Christmas and I am going to need to have a talk with his employer before next year.... LOL Glad to hear the new book is closer to being done. When does the 3rd in the series start? LOL
You have no idea how tempted I am to fire off the proposal for book three now. I better wait until I see if the editor disowns me when she sees the edits for book two.
JRR Tolkien was the absolute master of retro-revising a book he had already published. He put The Hobbit out into the world as a cute, light children's story. Then he was asked to write a sequel, and somehow The Lord of The Rings happened. To make that story work, it was suddenly necessary to make that convenient and helpful magic ring from the first book retroactively become The Source Of All Evil. To make this plausible, Bilbo's finding of the ring and relationship with it needed to be extensively rewritten. So Tolkien managed this by publishing a follow-up edition of The Hobbit where the Bilbo-Gollum chapter was COMPLETELY different (along with various other edits). He pulled this off by cleverly writing it into the LOTR canon that Bilbo originally published his "Red Book" (on which The Hobbit was supposedly based) with a false account of finding the ring, and that he did so because of the ring's evil influence over him. Then, later, he rewrote it and told the truth. But you can still find real-world copies of the original version of The Hobbit where Gollum was actually willing to give Bilbo the ring. (Existing copies of this apparently sell for thousands of dollars now.)
I'm a pretty big Lord of the Rings nerd and didn't know any of that. Apparently I need to read some books about the books.
I thought I was a pretty thorough LOTR fan - today I learned something new about it!
I am very excited for the new book and hope you are able to have some down time soon!
I have several projects to finish but keep putting off. If I just did them and got them over with, I know I'd feel that sense of relief when done. I need someone like an editor to motivate me! Since it's just me, it's amazing how easy I am to ignore.
Can't wait to read the sequel!
That's an interesting idea: an editor for hire, not for books, but for life. You might be on to something.
Cannot wait to read the sequel!!
Wonderful!
Looking forward to new book.
A meteor strike on our backyard would be an improvement. It might take out the moles. Maybe.
James, now you know why I went into technical writing. As long as it's accurate, no one cares. Besides, we all know that no one reads software manuals anyway.
I now understand the appeal of technical writing. You explain how to operate the thing and you're done. You don't need to justify the feelings of the toaster.
and if they do read them, they don't understand them so still no worries LOL
Ironically, in my experience, the technical manuals most urgently needed are generally not the ones that are well written, but the ones with poor grammar or spelling - or in a foreign language, where you have to look high and low for a colleague to translate.
When I find a typo in a technical manual, I'm suddenly afraid the entire product is about to blow up.
Really looking forward to this sequel!
As a grant writer, I'm very sympathetic with the post-deadline scramble to catch up on the rest of life. I do my best writing when a deadline is looming so close that I HAVE to drop everything else in my life and focus exclusively on what I am writing. But that means that once the grant is submitted and I collapse into a mental limp rag, all those undone chores (and the grants I'm writing for other clients) are staring me in the face. This next month is going to be particularly rough. After two or three months of worryingly slow business, I suddenly have at least six things due between now and February 1. That includes two MAJOR proposals for two different clients that are due January 31, and a third one for a third client due February 1. I can only imagine what mush my brain will be by the time I get that third one submitted.
I'm currently preparing for this by taking today completely off from all thoughts of work. It can be hard to keep those thoughts out when the upcoming calendar looms over me, but I really do need the rest before I plunge into it.
I know this feeling all too well. Even when you're "relaxing," those dark clouds are looming on the horizon. I have a feeling February 2nd is going to be the best day of your life. Either that or you'll sleep the whole day.
I hope you'll have now plenty of time to relax and spend with family and friends - you deserve it. I have similar feelings on putting sth out of my mind and trying to write it down, even though I'm far from being a professional, desribing nowadays mostly my memories (yet I found it tough not to miss some details). I try turing what I remembered into a text to the best of my ability, but still sometimes lack words to depict things. But I'm more then convinced the effort you put into the edits will flourish in a great read, to which I look forward.
I liked the anegdote abouth the house - I'd say it's exactly what developers do with video games, especially what Valve did with Counter-Strike 2 (as for me the game premiered way too early, as if it was open beta). Only in the devs' case instead of saying nothing can be done they usually slowly try to cover the imperfections with lots of patches.
Remember when games came out on cartridges and discs as finished products? Nowadays, they require a day one "patch" that's bigger than the actual game. I'm kind of glad I can't patch books. Otherwise I'd never be done.
My oldest son used to work for a game tester place, he loved it but it didn't pay a lot, but he was able to do it from home during Pandemic, so I was thrilled because at least he didn't have to come back home and live lol
That's the dream job of half the kids in America. Good for your son!
Sounds fantastic, I'm happy for his experience!
James: kudos on finishing the edits! I greatly admire people who can write coherent novels - when I attempt to write something long, I tend to get lost in the plethora of possible “forks in the road” for the plot. If I ever realize the dream of publishing a book, it‘ll have to be a children’s book.
Don't give up! I have many books that got lost at those forks and never saw the light of day, but when one finds its way out of the woods, it's a wonderful feeling. Until the editing starts...
Procrastination is highly underrated.
My house was always in a state of controlled chaos when the kids were growing up. I was always putting off the deep cleanings to spend time and experiences with my kids. Do not regret a single moment.
That's a good way to look at it. I'd hate to skip their childhoods to squeeze in one more book.
I think humans are genetically programmed to procrastinate. We all know a few of the people who jump on a task as soon as it’s handed to them, they are the anomalies. It’s great news you survived the edit. Hopefully you have it all polished and shiny and won’t need anything else done to it! Congratulations on finishing your second fiction novel!
I look forward to the editor writing back, "This is perfect, nothing more needed." That last sentence is the greatest work of fiction I've ever written.
Enjoy your week of “down time” while you get to catch up with life. I’m just happy to hear the edits are done!
You and me both!
As a recently retired proofreader/copy editor, I detect (and understand) the simultaneous distress and gratitude when the editing begins in earnest. You’ve got this!!
P.S. Are you familiar with Dave Barry’s song “I’m in Love with a Proofreading Woman” with the Rockbottom Remainders?
Just looked it up! Hilarious song!
My dad always took off the week before Christmas and the following week off work and was home with nothing to do for those two weeks. I could not understand why my mom hated that time of year so much until I was a lot older.. My husband had 5 days off before and after Christmas and I am going to need to have a talk with his employer before next year.... LOL Glad to hear the new book is closer to being done. When does the 3rd in the series start? LOL
You have no idea how tempted I am to fire off the proposal for book three now. I better wait until I see if the editor disowns me when she sees the edits for book two.