I’m struggling with the editing process. Not so much the theory of it. I can think of a lot of things I need to do, and there is a lot of useful advice out there on self editing. The manuscript needs a lot of polishing before I can get other people involved in reading it. I recognise that.<\/p>\n
However (and this is a big however), I’m struggling to fit editing into my life. With the first draft writing by hand, I could find 1\/2 hour here or there and get a little bit more writing down. My at-least-1-page-per-day system worked well. With a busy job and two young kids, small snippets of time are\u00a0all that seem possible. But that approach is not working for me when it comes to editing. I find I need more time, the capacity to really submerge myself into the work for an extended period, before I seem to be able to edit properly. Trying to do a little bit each night is not working. In fact, on some occasions it is actually counter-productive.<\/p>\n
That’s why I started writing another manuscript (the space opera – working title\u00a0Untethered<\/em>). It was easier to fit in.<\/p>\n So, my current strategy is to find\u00a0a couple of interruption free days to kick start the process. Perhaps once I’ve delved into the manuscript in a focused way, subsequent editing bit by bit will become more feasible. Negotiations have begun with my wife to free up a weekend so I can work sans-kids (of course I’ll need to return that particular favour!). Negotiations have begun with my parents so I can grab their caravan down in Wollongong for the isolation. I’d like to find some time pre-Christmas. Wish me luck.<\/p>\n On the culture consumed side, I read and reviewed\u00a0The Godless<\/em> by Ben Peek<\/a>. Excellent book, but you’ll have to read my review to find out why.<\/p>\n As flagged last month, I started the YA collection\u00a0Kaleidoscope<\/em>, but haven’t yet finished. OK so far, like the diversity theme but have my normal struggles engaging with YA work. It’s not them, it’s me.<\/p>\n Read another one of the recently re-released Wild Cards series,\u00a0Aces Abroad<\/em>. Love the flash back aspect of reading an 80s\/90s series. There is one story set in Australia, and the airlines referenced were Ansett and TAA. Love it! As previously commented, some gender issues that jump out now that I didn’t notice on first reading, but not as bad as it could be. All up, I’m enjoying the re-read.<\/p>\n Also started\u00a0The Long Mars<\/em> by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Only a little way in though, more to report next month.<\/p>\n On the TV front, I’m not liking The 100. <\/em>In fact, I think I’m\u00a0about to give up. It has been vaguely interesting, but they’ve just introduced a new character on the space station with a new strand\u00a0of political intrigue and I realised I didn’t really care enough about what happens to the characters. I’ve got too much of a backlog of TV, I think I can afford to give this one away.<\/p>\n Heard an Australian podcast recently talking about the new TV series The Flash\u00a0<\/em>(a spin off of Arrow<\/em>), but I have not been able to find it here in Australia. They must have been obtaining episodes by other means. I saw a “coming soon” ad on Foxtel though, so I would imagine it is not too far away.<\/p>\n The rest of my superhero fix is coming from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D<\/em>.,\u00a0Arrow\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Gotham<\/em>. AoS<\/em> has been good, I’m liking the\u00a0darker, short of resources world of the second season. Arrow<\/em> remains just a little over the top melodramatic, but I really like the flashback approach to showing backstory. Jury is still out on Gotham<\/em>, but so far so good.<\/p>\n In terms of TV series finished this month, I watched the last episode of season 4 of Teen Wolf<\/em> (a much shorter season this time around) and\u00a0The Strain.\u00a0<\/em>Enjoyed both shows, with a slight preference for Teen Wolf<\/i>.<\/p>\n So, who else is overdosing on superhero TV? Read any good books I should be considering? Any other interesting culture consumed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n <\/p>Hi,\n Welcome to Mark Webb’s author website. At this point the site is rather sparse – I’ve only recently started writing and there isn’t a lot to show for it right now. You can check out\u00a0my biography<\/a>, see …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,18],"class_list":["post-2574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-review","tag-specfic","tag-writing-process"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2574"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2579,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}