Pre-writing…
Today has been busy, although no writing has occured. I still have several hours more work to get through tonight, and none of that is writing, either.
Basically, I always knew there would be a horrendous, tedious step ahead whereby i would need to rectify the drafts. Like, once I got a draft I liked, I would need to go back to the Thailand draft, the draft written last March, and the non-fiction book from the narrator (that is no longer being used in the body of the book) and get them all square and happy. So, anything really good from those has to find its way into this final draft. No good writing funny, poignant stuff and being too lazy to make sure it ends up in the final.
So, that is today’s task (might be tomorrow’s too, we shall see). First up, I went through and smoothed out the outline. It didn’t need as much work as I thought. Still solid, and I still love it. That’s good.
Next up, reading the Thailand draft for the first time in… yikes, way too long. Just making sure no great nuggets, chunks, etc., fall through the cracks. Now that I’m working from the outline, it has more of a structure, so where to place something is more nailed now. i can read something and say, make sure that gets into Chapter 44, etc.
After Thailand will be the draft that was written post-Thailand. This also hasn’t been read in ages. Just panning for gold and lining it up, again.
After post-Thailand is a discarded (albeit huge) draft. Hmm, I also found some small pre-Thailand draft, very short thing, who knows.
Then there’s the draft that was written last March, which is the existing draft, so just need to do the first 14 chapters, as that is how far the edit only got. More for completeness than anything else, as this should all still be in there.
After those chapters, I will read the narrator’s non-fiction book, and there is probably more gold here than anywhere else, really, as this was written expecting some of it to be used in the actual book in excerpt form.
After that, the three documents I wrote the other day, just to make sure. And then whatever else I find in the folder, including the short story.
So, more reading, flagging, cutting, and pasting than anything else. At the end of this process, though, I will have a master document from which to cross the finish line. No work is being put off for the future. It is all happening now.
And, yes, I did mention and am seeing a finish line. Finally.
On a different note, to tie everything together, today was an exemplary diet day. Not a single emotional eating thing, nothing. Just all upbeat, on top of it all, and happy. Of course, I’ve never claimed there wasn’t a connection there.
ADDENDUM: This is a huge job, and since the work that needs to be read is all printed out and portable, I’m looking to use it to possibly get me out of the house as well. Two birds, and all.
