The Trouble With Being God

Editing, Procrastination, and Personal Complacency

Posted by William under book

Tonight was going to be the night for the next big chunk of major edits in the book, but unfortunately it’s being delayed again.

Last weekend the plan was to finish the entire book of edits, but instead it turned into working on drywall and electrical in the basement. This weekend I had hoped to at least make some progress and do some of day two, but again it’s easier not to do it.

When I think about it though, it’s probably better never to force things. After all, this is partly what got me to where I am currently. The edits in the earlier part of the book are really not to hard to accomplish, since they are really just applications of a better (and wiser?) writing style than what I had in my early 20s. The parts I wrote this previous summer, even though they follow the storyline, became a bit too internal(?) and even though I completely understood what was going on, my readers really didn’t. In my view, this was wholly due to the fact that I began writing for myself instead of for readers.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with writing for readers - and there is nothing wrong with readers in the first place. After all, I am a reader (although maybe that just brings readers down a notch). What is wrong is writing without making things clear for your audience - and by clear I never mean dumbing it down. Instead what I mean is making a point to let your internalisations external … to bring out the parts that you just inherently know and state them subtly, yet clearly.

This is where the major failure of the first version of the book really comes into play.

In all honesty, I still believe in the book and think it has a lot of potential. What I have realized in my “off-season” though is that I became a bit careless and forgot to realize that the reader is not the writer - and that sometimes you need to make things clearer, as well as not spell things out so specifically that you overwhelm someone due to rapid bluntness.

And this is why procrastination has been my friend through editing. It isn’t really that I am avoiding doing my edits, but instead it’s that I’ve been respecting them and the process.

Soon I’ll be done with the edits and the book will be where I can honestly say it’s complete. There’s no rush for this, since I’m not writing it to be a rich man - but instead it’s a project that I want to do right. When it’s done, it will be done and it will be complete (although it still may, and hopefully will evolve).

I’m in no rush, other than that sometimes I just want it to be done so I can switch gears back to The Horizon. But even then, I need to be complete with this and ready to move on.