4: My Great List of Lessons

We’re at the last week!  There are four days between now and when my book needs to be shipped off and, you know, torn to shreds. Since it’s the last one for this particular microrisk (though I’ll update about how this whole process with my book is progressing as it goes), I thought I’d list out what I’ve learned over this month. Some of this will be literal lessons I learned from professionals kind of enough to take my money for their expertise, and some will be takeaways from this experience. Here it is!

Have A Process!

This lesson comes from a class, but is heavily supported by my experience. So what does this look like? It may help to look up other editors’ processes just to get an idea, but as I’m never a fan of the “just google it” mentality, I’ll go over mine.  

With the advice of an author I was very lucky to have gotten the chance to meet with, Alison Ragsdale, my first step; printing out the book.  

I think a lot of writers feel this way, that having the physical book to flip through makes the whole process feel smoother and less tedious.  You can rearrange pages, like if you’re nervous about some kind of story mismatch, you can throw a couple pages together and scan for what you think might be wrong. Overall I give that step in the process a 10 out 10 worth the effort points because I guess I’m rating these now.

My next step was going back to where I knew for a fact there were problems, marked them, made a separate note about them on a different sheet of paper, and had that on hand in case I came across something as I read that acted as a fix.

Step three! Reaaaaaaaad.  This is where I just read and read and got bored and got scared I that I had gotten bored and ultimately took a few days off.  

This leads me to the most informative part of this process for me; Take A Break! Again, something that’s been said by plenty of people, but I think we all get so caught up in this power through/hustle culture that we act like this idea is a luxury, a little treat for ourselves.  It’s not. The break isn’t a reward for working harder, but a means to working better.  I walked away from this project for three days when something clicked in my brain. It was completely random, I was just out walking my dog when it occurred to me which scene I could change that would knock everything else right into place. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my Problem Areas note sheet, wrote everything I could think of on there and then walked away again. Another day to ruminate on what I had just cooked up, let it sit in its thought juices and see if there was any other good that could come of my brain on cruise control.  Turns out that extra day wasn’t necessary, but still, breaks are nice.

Step four, the last step, was truly the most helpful part for me, was looking for connections. What tethers this story together? What keeps this story from being, as I kept saying throughout this process, just a couple of people hanging out? Though I suppose there are stories like that out there, I’ve just never gotten to the end of any of them because if I wanted to experience people hanging out I would just go do that, might even get a beer out of it.  If you come up empty on the connection front, what could you add or alter to make the story more cohesive?

Realizing that this list ends at four makes me feel like “process” might be a strong word. Technically, or at least according to what I’ve learned in my editing courses, it should be quite a bit more rigid than these steps as well, but I know that if I add too much structure, I’ll just feel… penned in?? Right? Guys? Hey, guys? 

However, if more structure helps keep you on task, then I’d suggest looking at Poynter’s editing courses, they’ve got some good ones on this exact topic (I don’t know if I need to say that this  isn’t sponsored, with my three blog posts I feel like all corporation’s lack of investment in this is pretty clear, but just in case-- not sponsored by Poynter or any money having entity).  

Next lesson: Block Out Time!

Treat this like a class or work because if you say, “I’ll do it when I have time.” you’ll never have time.  This is a priority. This is something that matters to you. You can make the time. Of course, this is short of people that legitimately need to work multiple jobs to support themselves and meet those survival needs. If you are someone who has time to hang out with friends or watch movies, you have time to do this.  Again, taking breaks is necessary, but schedule those too. 

In fact, the best way to schedule out your day is to do your fun stuff first. When are you trying to hang out with your friends? When are you trying to see that movie that just became free on Disney+? Put those into your calendar and then plan to edit around them. If there’s so much socializing on there that you don’t have enough editing time, start cutting things out. If your friends text you during editing time asking to hang out, tell them no, tell them you’re busy. Because you are. This is a goal you’ve set for yourself and you care enough about yourself and respect yourself enough to follow through on it. And if that reads as preachy, know that I’m mostly saying it to me. 

Last Lesson: Be Nice to Yourself!

Truly something we should be doing all the time, but since editing is, by its very nature, a pretty judgy process, don’t be a dick about it. The poicy should be, if you wouldn’t say to someone you care about, don’t say it to yourself. And don’t lean on the “I’m just being realistic.” or “I can be honest with myself.” crutch. We can be realistic and honest without being jerks. We can do these things constructively. So when we find ourselves saying, “This is so dumb, why would I think anyone would like this?”, maybe instead try, “I’m not sure if I still like how this is worded, how can I do this differently?”. Or whatever it is that’s making us feel that way and addressing that specifically. Not only will this make the process helpful instead of harmful, it’ll also make it more fun. Because no one likes hanging out with someone who calls their work stupid, even when it’s ourselves. So if there’s a problem, be kind and offer solutions over criticism.

I hereby declare this my Great List of Lessons! If there were a comment section I would ask what your big lessons have been if you’ve gone through something like this, but I don’t know how to add comments, so I’ll just wonder about them.

Next Monday’s post will be a quick note on finding an editor and then October’s microrisk! 

Signing off with great purpose and intention!