Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Phew!

Phew! Done! Actually done a few days ago, but Thanksgiving was another phew, so I now have some time to look back. I don't know if I'll use December for editing.

Pros and Cons for December editing:
Pros: the story is still fresh in my mind, and it is probably better to get it over with. I may also lose the instinct and desire to finish the thing if I don't do this in December.
Cons: One can see the holes and what is missing better if a hiatus is allowed in between the writing time and the fixing time. On the other hand, December is a busy month.

In the meanwhile, I took a look at the novel because its beginning has been bugging me all along. I had started it with a prologue since I hadn't decided who the main character would be. Now I got rid of the prologue and incorporated it into the first two chapters. I'm glad I did that since I hate prologues in novels of this kind. Prologues may be okay when they introduce an alien world or something like that, but not in the kind of novel I wrote.

Did I say I wasn't sure about any editing in December? Well it seems the editing has already begun.

I will probably go over the sections that I have left with a question mark in my mind, like the one that reads like a travelogue of Mexico's west coast. This is somewhere close to the middle. I wrote that because my mind had stopped as to where to take the story, for which I am now glad because that section became a bridge to the rest of the story. It is very possible I'll cut out the travelogue, however.

Thanksgiving was great, especially the part where I saw my children -well, my adult children who have homes far away from where I live.

All in all, November 2009 has been an experience.