**For my most up-to-date happenings, check out my Tumblr page: sararaasch.tumblr.com.**

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Burnt Like a Piece of Toast


Editing-burn-out hit me hard yesterday, my friends. I was going strong. 2.5 days of editing straight. I thought I could press on to the end. And everything was peachy.

Until about 4PM yesterday afternoon. Right smack dab, of course, in the middle of my archaeology class. At that point, I realized two things. Firstly, archaeology just isn't interesting when your eyes are so fuzzled from staring at a laptop that you can't see the projector screen at the front of the classroom. Secondly, I hadn't eaten anything since 10AM that morning. Left over Chinese food and Mint Truffle Hershey Kisses just don't satisfy one's appetite all day.

So don't expect a super snappy blog post (I'm still suffering editing-hangover). The title is as snappy as I plan on getting. In fact, I'm going to steal snappy things from other people.

First stolen snap: My beloved cousin received a good bout of my editing-burn-out complaining yesterday and redirected me to Libba Bray's post: Writing a Novel, a Love Story. Not only do I love Libba Bray to pieces, but re-reading that post gave me a new burst of hope. It's okay to hate my novel with the fire of a thousand toasters (gotta keep the toast analogy going). I'd say I'm somehwere between The Revision, On Deadline and The Revision, Near the End. Though I'm not on a deadline (yet. *gulp*). I'm caught in that weird limbo of OHMYGODIHATEYOUIHATEYOU and When I'm not Working on You, You're Actually Quite Pretty. I did make one revision today that I liked. One. Out of how many? *whimpers*

Second stolen snap: Last night I had the immense pleasure of attending a NaNoWriMo Write-In (they didn't throw me out for doing NaNoRevisMo! Yay!) where I got to chat it up writing-style with Dara Sorensen over at Tales From the Writing Front. For a long time it felt like all my writer people were way out west. I was quite lonely, here in my corniness. But then I found out Dara was not only in the same area of the corn belt as me but was also doing NaNo (back when I was, ahem, doing NaNo), and I got really excited. Yay, Eastern Cornbelt Writers! Woot woot!

AND as if she wasn't awesome enough, she nominated me for a blog award! If my brain wasn't so fuzzled (I already used the word "fuzzled" to describe myself, didn't I?), I would nominate people, but I fear my nominating judgement is clouded.

(And I just realized that other people have nominated me for blog awards in the past too...and I think I may have forgotten to acknowledge how warm and fuzzy that made me feel! Fuzzy, mind you, not fuzzled. Big difference. But my brain fuzzled-ness is preventing me from remembering if I acknowledged the other blog awards...if I didn't, YOU GUYS ROCK!! If I did, well, YOU GUYS STILL ROCK!!)

To sum up: Libba Bray is a goddess, Dara Sorensen is super fun and totally the kind of big sis I would want (the write-offs she has with her sister are INTENSE, ya'll; if I could get my little sis to WRITE, let alone have a write-off with me, I think the world would implode), and leaving your brain in the toaster for too long makes it way too crispy. And crispy brains make for poor judgement calls. Like eating half a bag of Mint Truffle Hershey Kisses. Ow.

7 comments:

Jade said...

I'm sorry about your editing burn out, is sounds very--toasty? Okay, that was lame.

You totally inspired me though and I neglected Archer and friends and spent hours editing Charms today.

lisa and laura said...

I always take the burn out as a good sign. Whenever we're about 3/4 of the way through a really amazing revision we inevitably hate the manuscript and it almost always occurs to me that maybe it would just be easier to start over. And then we finish and it's usually pretty darn good.

You totally got this. Good luck finishing up!

Hayley Lovell said...

Sorry you're all burnt out Sara, but you can do it. I know you can just keep yourself nourished and look away from the screen for a bit. Its not good for your eyes to stare at that thing all day long. You're inspriing Sara, trust me you make editing look much less intimidating that it really is.

Mariah Irvin said...

Libba Bray is so awesome.

So are you! Just remember to give yourself a break...

I was going to say it won't run away any time soon but that could be a lie. Things always run away from me :(

Anonymous said...

LOL! Your toaster analogy seriously made me laugh loud enough to scare the poor cat off my lap :P

I'm not quite at the editing phase yet but I'm pretty certain with the word vomit I'm spewing for NaNo (lovely imagery there, huh?), I will probably burn out editing it very, very quickly.

I think Lisa and Laura make a good point--the burn out can be a good sign. :)

And I'm VERY glad I got to meet you too! And now I'm in awe that you hold me in such high esteem :) Thank you!!

Kasie West said...

Okay that Libba Bray post had me rolling. It was sooo funny. And soooo true. It's okay to hate my book. Thanks for the reminder. :) Good luck with revisions.

Sara Raasch said...

Jade -- Glad I could inspire someone :) Yay for editing! I think...

L&L -- I'm slowly realizing that too. Slowly. But knowing you all survived editing hell gives me hope :)

Hayley -- It is very dangerous to look at the screen too long. My eyes will hate me after much longer...

Mariah -- Things run away from me too! And I'm so darn out of shape I can't catch them.

Dara -- Sorry I scared your kitty ;) And I think sometimes recognizing word vomit can make editing easier. At least then you don't go in with delusions of grandeur. Getting knocked off those delusions hurts.

Kasie -- Libba is awesome, isn't she?