Hello World. Editing and the Shiny New Thing

Well, hello shiny new thing! And hello to you, dear reader. Welcome! Thanks for taking a second out of your day to sneak away from whatever you were doing to join me. For lack of a better excuse, I'm in the middle of editing my first manuscript (yay!) and... I don't want to be? Like, six-year-old-grocery-store-meltdown don't want to be. I want to be writing.

"But Jon, editing technically is writing," you say. To which I respond with a stomp of my foot, crossed arms... and a curt nod. Indeed, editing is writing. But it's hard writing. It doesn't have quite the same allure to me as a blank page, which is full of possibility and gives my imagination the opportunity to run wild and naked and free.

No, editing by its very nature requires focus, attention to detail, and, if I'm being honest with myself, a degree of craftsmanship that I have yet to attain, if I ever do. Which is probably why I'm on my third pass. It's been rough. But I think the story has become better since the first draft. And no, that's not me being stubborn and proclaiming that three rounds of edits must have made it better, but like, tangibly better. I haven't had to stop and ask one of the dreaded 'W Questions' nearly as much as the previous two read throughs. So, I daresay, the time spent has been worthwhile.

That being said, I think that's why letting word vomit hit the screen sounds so appealing right now (and thus why I'm blogging). Where editing is a grueling endeavor, writing is less inhibited. Sure, you have to burn a few braincells to plot a rough outline of where you're going (if you're me), but beyond that, you go where the characters and/or plot take you. It's liberating to just go with the narrative flow. Not sure what happens next? Blow something up! Would that character say that? He would right now! Is any of this logical? Fuck it! Let future Jon deal with it during edits, screw that guy! (past Jon is an ass).

All that being said/whined about/whatever, I guess the question stands: "why don't you just write something new?" Because... Because! I say, shaking my fist at the sky. I have momentum. And splitting my brainspace between two stories would be too much for my little peanut of grey matter to handle. I'm sure there are writers capable of *gulp* multitasking. Or even required to if they have multiple projects in the pipeline.

But at this point, as I'm busy stapling wings onto this pig before I kick it out the window, I need to stay focused. If I get distracted by "The Next Great Thing" I'm liable to never finish this current work. And by the gods do I want to finish. Dave White expounded on this over on Chuck Wendig's blog a bit. I share his sentiment regarding 'writing something shiny and new.' Eventually that shiny new thing will be overtaken by another "Next Great Thing."

So, blogging it is. I get to listen to the wonderful noise of my mechanical keyboard and expunge these dumb words from my system. Tomorrow I can get back in my hole and keep digging. (Is that three metaphors in one post? Four? All unrelated? Whatever, future Jon can lament this post later)