I’m currently writing the second draft of my urban fantasy satire, Peering Up The Trouserleg of Giants. As I have previously mentioned, my second drafts are generally a combination of editing extraneous wordage, smoothing over rough edges of scenes, and dealing with continuity issues.
However, on this occasion what I inherited from me-two-months-ago could accurately be described as "a dog’s breakfast”. It needs a lot of work. I went through it the first time and made good use of the “Comments” function, to point out where things needed a bit of tinkering under the hood.
If you don't use the Comments, you really should - they're a little like those passive-agressive sticky notes you used to leave on the fridge for your flatmates.
Some of my comments are of a practical nature, and could befiled under "constructive criticism":
Um, I don’t think the MC even has a niece
You can’t be talking about Fergus; he’s an orphan
Coronation Street is older than that!
Others (as my eyes get progressively more tired) are short and snappy, to the point of being terse:
Scene needs completion!
Incomplete sentence!
Not Christmas songs!
Check the day!
And then there are the snarky ones, which tend to begin with a know-it-all “Actually...” you can just imagine the tone of voice when you read these ones:
Actually, you said before that they would come the previous afternoon
Actually, he’s in the cafeteria
Actually this is the afternoon
Actually THIS SHOULD BE IN LATIN
Sigh. Is this normal? I don't know... but I guess I better get back to it, before I’m forced to write leave myself another passive-aggressive Comment…
LOL. Sometimes you've gotta be short & bitchy with yourself. hehe
ReplyDeleteAt least you can see the errors! Right now I'm totally burned out on revision so I'm taking a break entirely.
Whenever I try to read my work, I get so fed up with it. However, my comments don't come out as short as yours, being I like to rant and complain. ;)
ReplyDeleteHaha that's so awesome! The best part is that the author will actually listen to your comments and change it accordingly. :P Can't wait until I get to do that to my own work!
ReplyDeleteSometimes you have to be overly snarky with yourself. It helps me, I know!
ReplyDeleteOh phew! Thanks guys, I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who snarks at herself!
ReplyDeletePS The original title of this post was "Note To Self: Stop Sucking, Already" but at the last minute I decided that really WAS crazy-town.