How to Stay Motivated in the Editing Stage

Any indie writer will tell you that "writing" is the least taxing and stressful thing that we do. Sure, we complain about writer's block and creating believable characters and the struggle of making plot twists unexpected. But writing is the part that we love. It's the part that comes next that makes us question our decision to write.

EDITING! Oh, the horror. No first draft of a novel is a winner. None. When you go back and re-read, 100% of the time you will find spelling and grammar errors, plot holes, unrealistic dialogue, repetitive wording, and scenes you just left hanging that never tied into your story. You'll discover cliches that make you face-palm and cringe-worthy dialogue that makes you think, "There's no way I wrote this."

A lot of people that I talk to who aren't writers are surprised to hear that I do this. I think people honestly think we just come up with a story, type it out, send it off, and get rich. Easy way to make a living if you're creative, am I right?

No. I'm wrong. 110% wrong. Writing a book is WORK. I sat down and started writing Cantamen on January 1, 2017. I finished my first draft on July 1, 2017. That's six months of writing, and when I re-read it, it was a complete mess. I culled entire paragraphs. I hated my main character, Abby. She was over-dramatic and I couldn't relate to her. There was a prophecy that was mentioned once and then never again. I wrote a scene where Abby found a key and then never mentioned that again. My novel was far more crudely-written teen drama than badass feminist fantasy novel, and I wanted to cry.

I didn't cry, though. I put on my big girl pants and basically went back to the drawing board. I've added chapters, I've deleted chapters, I've re-written chapters. I've deleted scenes and entire characters. I've added characters. Abby has a much more well-defined character arc now, and comes across as less of a spoiled brat. There is more magic and fantasy elements now. I've added foreshadowing and removed the prophecy cliche entirely. It still needs a lot of work, but I cannot imagine the epic failure that Cantamen would have been had I simply shipped my first draft off to be published.

That's why the editing process is so, so super-duper important. It's probably 90% of the work and the most important step in preparing your work for publication.

It's no secret that it's taxing, though. It's tedious. It's a lot of hours spent reading your own words back to yourself. Reading them out loud. Printing them out and typing them out again. Scouring your print-outs with a red pen and mercilessly cutting your creation open and bleeding it until it is perfect. But it's never really perfect. You could edit and re-write for the rest of your life and never feel that it's "perfect." At some point you have to just say, "This is the finished product. I'm done," and you move on to writing your next project.

I've been shamelessly slacking for the past few days. My husband got sick and I was waiting to catch it, since everyone in his office had it. I haven't caught it yet though, surprisingly, and he's fully recovered so maybe (fingers crossed!) I somehow avoided that misfortune. I'm struggling because I'm currently re-writing a chapter and I'm not sure where to go from here. When you add in characters and an extra subplot to increase the tension in your story, it makes you re-think your entire timeline. Where do these pieces go? When should this happen? I've been avoiding the chore of sitting down and working out my timeline for the hundredth time. Even now, I'm blogging instead of working on my novel! Shame, shame on me!

This is important though, because I'm going to share with you the tips I've used in the past, and will use again starting today, for keeping myself motivated during this miserable editing phase.

1. Set deadlines for yourself. For example, I told my husband last night that come hell or high water, I will finish the second draft of Cantamen and get it sent off to my beta readers by the last day of August. That's a reasonable amount of time for my current stage of editing, but doesn't allow me a lot of wiggle room for slacking. It lights a fire under my butt without sending me into full-blown panic mode (at least until the last few days of August, anyway).

2. Take frequent breaks. A lot of different studies have shown that taking brief breaks more frequently really increases our productivity. I use my fitness tracker; every 50 minutes it vibrates to let me know that I've been idle for 50 minutes and it's time to stretch. I obediently finish what I'm doing and take 5-10 minutes to stretch, walk around, refill my water bottle, grab a snack, go to the bathroom. I also make sure to break up the monotony with fun stuff like playing with my dog, playing a phone game or two, or just lying down on my bed and relaxing for a few minutes.

3. Take care of yourself. Editing is a job like any other, and you shouldn't allow it to consume your life. You should still be making efforts to eat healthy meals, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep. If you work too hard, you'll be exhausted and burnt out and your work will suffer for it.

4. Remember to love writing. You decided to work on this project because you love it. You love the idea, and you love the process. This project is your brain child, and the fact that you're editing it at all shows that you take it seriously and you want to nurture it and help it grow. Don't forget that you love writing. Don't drive yourself to hate what you do. Give yourself the freedom every now and then to just write. Close your project document and write a short story. Go outside and write a poem. Pick a series you know well and indulge yourself in writing some fan fiction. It's important that even as you're editing and revising, you continue to write for the fun and the love of it.

5. Find an accountability partner, or group. If you aren't currently a member of a local writing group that meets in person to critique and discuss and improve their writing, then I highly recommend finding one. I created one locally and even as the person running the shindig I've found the group to be an invaluable resource. Even just sitting with coffee and chatting about our individual works-in-progress and brainstorming ways to overcome our individual hurdles with our work is mentally and professionally beneficial. There's just something about connecting with other writers who understand the process and are serious about their work that's incredibly motivating. And if you can, try to pair up with an accountability partner who will check in periodically and say, "Hey, how's that edit-one-chapter-a-day goal coming along this week?" And don't forget to always, always return the favor!

So there's five of my tips for staying motivated during the editing and revision phase of working on a novel. I hope you find them as helpful as I do! Feel free to drop your favorite helpful tips in the comments. Right now, though, it's well past time for me to get to work on this timeline. Have a wonderful day, and happy editing!