Editing Woes

Well, I was hoping to get through much of my editing over the weekend, but life had other opportunities for me. Saturday morning I kissed the wife good-bye (she's an accountant and had to go to work), turned on the radio, and sat down at the laptop for a full day of editing. I had gotten chapter 13 opened when the DJ on the radio reminded me of Ozzy Osbourne doing his book signing less than 15 miles away. I hadn't planned on going, but the sun was shinning and the dog was lounging on the back pourch - a sure sign of a nice day - so I decided it'd be a nice ride on the motorcycle. And if the line was too long I'd just turn around and head back home - no loss.

I got to the store and there were people, but not too much (or so I thought). At 12:30pm I purchase two books for Ozzy to sign. 3:30pm Ozzy finally arrives. 6:30pm they finally call my group to line up. 7:30pm I find myself standing in front of Ozzy. And then I am pushed away before I can think of anything clever to say. He signed both books and sent me on my way. Needless to say I got no editing done on Saturday.

Sunday, I promised to take the wife to Phantom of the Opera. At $50 a ticket (already purchased) I wasn't going to stay at home. No worries, I can edit when I get home - right? WRONG? A friend of mine calls up with some personal issues and I happily help him. He leaves aroung 9:30pm. So no editing on Sunday either.

Actually I did do a little. Sometime during church I managed to figure out what was wrong with my first paragraph of chapter 1. Out comes the iPhone and I write the new paragraph, much to the dismay of the wife.

Today, I managed to get through 13 and I got back Chapter 1 from a new friend across the pond who graciously looked it over for me. It amazes me how many times I can look over the same sentence and still not see what is actually written! My mind knows what I want to say, so my brain inserts or deletes the words that are missing. Yeah, I know I got to read it outloud. I promise I will, but I'd really like to get through the 3rd rewrite before going back to do the reading out loud editing.

And here I thought that writing the book was the hard part - and I have 8 of these things planned? I must me as mad as the Mad Hatter in my book.