That Nasty "P" Word Again

It's that nasty "P" word... yet again!

PROCRASTINATION.

I'm a master at it.

... and while I'm sitting here blogging on - I'm doing it again.

What I really should be doing is editing The Shadow Runners. It's sooooo close to being finished that I can practically see the book on the book shop shelf... and yet... here I sit doing everything but the editing.

I've even done all the office filing. Now that's something I always leave until it resembles the leaning tower of Pisa and becomes near life-threatening to walk past.

I've also drawn pictures of my characters, done some photo retouching for my cousin... all things that could be done after the edits.

These edits are important. This is where I pick up on all the little mistakes - like the "Ienpw" issue I mentioned last time, spelling, grammar, point of view problems - the list goes on. These edits could make or break the book. They could make a reader never want the story to end, or make a reader never want to finish it.

Super-important.

So why am I not doing it.... hmmmmm?

I've fallen into the trap we writers set for ourselves sometimes. The old "when I'm in the mood for it" trap.

Make no mistake, that's a real demon, and it creeps up on us and worms its way into our psyche. How many times have you heard a writer say: I'll finish that story when I'm in "the writing mood". Piffle!

This is where that other nasty little word WORK comes in.

The fun of getting the story down on paper - or computer screen - is over. Now the real work begins. The rewrites, the re-rewrites, the re-re-rewrites, the copy edits, the manuscript edits, the edit edits, the re-edits... It all has to happen, or the novel never gets to publishing standard.

So... here I sit blogging.

OK. Fine. I'll go do the edits. It isn't as if I don't know how. I do know how. I've even made a start. I've edited chapter one.

I even looked at chapter two. Page one of chapter two has a mistake of the "Anubis" kind on it so I ran screaming.

Yeah. I did it again. Ranger is, after all, a "ranger". He can communicate with all animals [a trait that becomes extremely important a couple of chapters later] ...and there, right on the first page of chapter two, I have Jaxxlar telling him [telling him, mind you] what a camorii is and telling him she can communicate. Oh God! Where was my mind when I wrote that paragraph?

OK. Don't panic. I can fix this. A couple of paragraphs is all it will take. Nothing too strenuous.

So.... GET ON WITH IT...

Right. No problem. I'm getting.

I'll just have my shower first, read my email, do the dishes, make a cup of coffee, make a few phone calls.... then... I promise....