EDITING

In two hour's time I will find myself at the local tea shop buying Lady Blue with quarters, but right now I am sitting in the local library, listening to Regina Spektor, and about to start the most dangerous process known to woman:

Editing.

Last time we spoke, I had procured a binder and printed off nearly fifty pages of my manuscript in orange ink, and was planning on cutting it up. I have done so, and now I am about to take the changes I made on paper and fix them onscreen. I always find this harder, because it involves writing as well; writing between lines already penned and thoughts that connected then but do not connect now. I am breaking up the order I created and replacing it with chaos.

If you look at the samples I have provided, you can see a lot of "TRANSITION" and cuts. In fact, I have dedicated a photograph to the simple word, CUT. In others, I have only changed tenses and added new paragraphs. It's very messy. And distracting for me as a writer, as I am so used to either ordering other people to make the changes then report back to me, or sitting down and typing onto an endless white screen.

During my editing, a nagging memory has been plaguing me. Somewhere once I read to cut characters, to blend them, to make them interesting, and I have cut Jordan from the apartment. I am holding her in reserve, in case she is needed again, but as it is, there are already too many characters for little ol' me to handle, and I'm certainly no Faulkner. I'm just a college student writing in the local library who resents the head librarian because I'm too young to flirt with him.

At any rate, I have put off my editing too long as it is, and my friends are already texting me about when I'm going to go to the tea shop. My time is limited, and so I will spend it with my characters.