The “What The Hell Was I Thinking” Hat

At least that’s what I think I put on my head when it comes time to comb over a novel looking for all the errors.

This is why I think that anyone that believes they’re so wonderously talented that a novel is done when they type “The End” is deluded or simply drunk. Unless you’ve been meticulously editing and going back over it again and again while you’re writing, you’re going to miss something, errors are going to creep in, and you’re going to realize that what you have at the end might require tweaking at the beginning or the middle to keep things more in line.

I’m halfway through my line edit. I still have no major rewriting to do yet, as I’m waiting on comments from other readers, but in the time that I’ve been trawling through my book I’ve discovered all kinds of things that make me smack my forehead. Continuity errors are the biggest thing, like people putting down glasses of wine, only to be staring at them in their hands three paragraphs later. Or cigarettes that get lit, and then are forgotten about and remain in their fingers, unsmoked, as another is lit.

And of course, my personal favorites, typos. It more or less completely changes the context of an entire conversation when someone casually remarks, “That’s a hard on” as opposed to “That’s a hard one” which is what was supposed to have been said. Still, the former does open up some potentially interesting avenues of dialogue, but not in this book.

And then there is the rewrite itself. I see some things that I might need to tweak, and other things I suspect I might need to change, but I want to wait on confirmation from a few people first to see whether I’m being objective about a change, or just needlessly fussy. Like my initial reaction is, “I need more descriptions here and there” but that instinct is curbed by the past comments that I often have a tendency to overdo it in the description department and perhaps this time I’ve gotten it in reasonable amounts.

It’s funny though how wildly opinions can vary.

I’ve had some early feedback, and already I’m seeing some divirgent opinions. Some people think certain characters should act a particular way, other people think the character in question is just fine and that to do more would wreck empathy with said character. Some people find that there are too many explosions and action sequences, other people are scratching their chins and saying, “Why’d you cut down? I really like the action oriented stuff.” I’ve also gotten some comments that there’s not enough dialogue, and other comments saying I could afford to shave some away, so again, it’s a fascinating process seeing what different people bring to table, getting their take on how they’d do it, and seeing how much in conflict that might be with another person’s ideas.

But at least no one is saying it sucks, and a few have already cursed me for writing something they couldn’t stop reading, so that’s always a positive sign.

And my obsessive quest to end Psychonauts on 100% completion draws nigh! I AM THE KING OF BRAINS!

Right. Back to editing.