Monday 24 March 2008

Let editing commence!

I headed out on Friday to buy four A4 folders from WHSmiths, imagining the print-out of the novel nicely nestled inside, and giving them to friends in what I hope will be a ‘nice gift/please read and feedback’ double edged sword. Then Saturday I headed out again, as the black ink cartridge had died mid-print. Finally I had one completed print-out, but I had to wrestle with my ‘7-page at a time’ hole punch, and then – yes, success.

Except…

There are too many pages for the folder to shut properly. In fact, it doesn’t shut at all. Darn it… This is probably because I have chosen the font Garamond, and point size 14. It sounds huge but Garamond is a serif type-face so needs to be slightly bigger, and besides, it looks good! Yet perhaps I should stick with something like Ariel, nice and easy on the eyes. Or Courier, and pretend I typed it all old-school on a typewriter. What font do editors like, anyway? Readable, I'd imagine goes down a treat. But then again, so does being able to turn the pages…

I have started editing in the other room, and it is slow going, I keep coming across passages that I am sure could be handled better, but my brain can only see the words I have written previously and refuses to accept anything new. And then there is editing for editing’s sake which is a bad habit to get into, and then thankfully there is the spotting of superfluous sentences that can be whipped out nice and painlessly and the novel sighs with relief.

Blimey, I have to say this spare room where I have the computer is FREEZING! It is the side of the flat that gets no sun, there is a heater but you'd be hard pressed to get a dribble of warmth from it and soon I shall see my breath hang before me in the air. If only I had a laptop! We got stung with a huge electricity bill recently, and I am sure it is connected to me hugging heaters during the day, so now I am scared to turn them on and have instead taken to wearing all my clothes at once. This does not do wonders for the morale or ego.

But – I return to the working world tomorrow! Yes… back to the commute, back to getting on the train by 7.30am and back to stress – woohoo! Actually this job is like a superhero racing in to save the heroine from a burning building, it has come literally in the nick of time for the overdraft, so for that its praises shall be sang from the rooftops. It’s only a month contract for now, and I’ll still get time to edit around it, at least that is the hope. I’m a bit blooming nervous about working in an office again though, and more than a bit nervous about the role I'll be doing. Ah well - only a month, real people to interact with, and a nice pay check at the end can't be bad.

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