Fixing Mistakes

Editing is an annoying part of the writing process, but something that can and will be of great importance to every writer. It helps to remove all those annoying little grammatical errors that you didn't notice when you wrote the piece, it helps to make the piece flow better, and in my case it helps to cover up the stupid little mistakes I made.

This summer, along with write a whole load, I plan on editing the three novellas I wrote last summer. By and large this will just be for myself so that I can clear the books of a certain feel to them, too real to be fiction and too fictional to be biographical. I want these books to be my own, and so during the edits I'll be making them different, adding people here, removing people there, twisting the already twisted lying memories into something truer than ever before, true in its fiction, not in the anecdotes the books twist into full-blown stories.

Unless a writing career develops that calls for need for these books, they'll largely just be something for myself. They'll be mistakes I've made and corrected, practice in writing and practice in editing, and that is something I can be proud of. Fixing the mistakes of my past seems to be a continuing theme of my life, making sure all those little things I did get made up for.

A year ago, and since, my blog has been a forum of discussion of many of the affairs of my life. I have been comfortable talking about some things, uncomfortable talking about others and expressing my anguish poorly and indirectly, and while I have moaned to some extent about certain people publicly I have kept their names a secret; I understand the importance of being somewhat discreet in these matters and know that public defamation, all legalities aside, is just plain wrong.

So my blog is transforming into what I want it to be - a place where I can review books, a place where I can share anecdotes about my life, and a place where I can talk about the writing I am doing. I'm liking it more this way. Obviously if something drastic happens that darkens my mood and I feel the need to complain in some way, I will probably resort to my blog for that, but this is my way of maintaining contact with my sometimes-few readers.


Official housekeeping stuff: I know I missed my review on Wednesday. I'll post it this coming Wednesday instead. And I will explain why I missed it in a future post, as well as explain why I didn't explain why sooner in another post. It's been a busy few days.

Super cool announcement: Way back when (I can't quite remember how long ago - not too long - so I'm over-estimating... it was last month) Rebecca Woodhead put out a call for people to answer some questions about Facebook. She was writing an article for the May 2011 issue of Writing Magazine. I answered her questions on her blog (http://rebeccawoodhead.com) and Rebecca, being such a lovely person, got back to me shortly afterwards and said she was going to quote me in the article. Yes, that's right: thanks to the ever-brilliant Rebecca Woodhead (whose début novel is coming out in a matter of days! Go to her site, now!) I will be making a cameo appearance in a national (and the best selling) UK writing magazine. How cool is that?! I can't wait to go into town right after college at the end of the week to get it!

That's it for now. I'll be back tomorrow or Tuesday to write about last Wednesday, a review will be up this Wednesday, then I'll be writing about Thursday just gone and Monday coming over the next couple of days after that. They almost became one big post, but I figure the events were significant enough for me to separate them in worded-awesome. Until next time, take care!