Bread crumbs through the forest of edit

Aug 29, 2006

I’ll try to make this quick. It’s been a very distracting morning and I’ve just gotten to sit down to work. But I realized that I’m using one of my tricks for keeping the plot and things going in a book. I have a chapter that got moved to later in this book, and because of events that preceded it the chapter has to change substantially, but not completely. I’ve had a couple of scenes that had to be edited and changed, but were still necessary. What I’ve been doing was to make notes on sticky notes and put them up near the computer so they are like the first thing I see when I sit down. I don’t have to stare at the computer screen and all those words and wonder how do I fix this? Yesterday at the end of the work day I knew how to fix it, so I left myself a note about what seemed so clear at the end of yesterday. Smart me. A few days back I actually made a numbered outline on a large sticky note, so I could follow my literary bread crumbs through the forest of edits. I know, I’m breaking that never edit until it’s a first draft rule, but I know I will finish this book. I know that somehow I’ll muddle through to the end. I won’t loose courage or strength before the end. And the rewrite of the scene where we have a death, well, that changed the interaction with the police that had already been partially written. So one change has dictated others. But if I had to, I could finish the book and simply know that I’d need the dialogue changed in this chapter. But I know how to fix it, fix it today, and be back to the action tomorrow. But often when I am having to edit as I go I do lists of changes at the end of the day so that in the morning what seemed so clear hasn’t vanished into the haze. Trust me, plotting is like getting ideas, if you don’t write it down, sometimes it goes away.