The author blog of C. J. Ivory

Tinkerer with words. Dresser-Upper. Adorer of Steampunk and VictoriaNoir fiction. Occasional Lawgineer.

May 25, 2011

Notes to self

Gentle Reader,

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…

5 comments:

Trisha said...

LOL. Sometimes you've gotta be short & bitchy with yourself. hehe

At least you can see the errors! Right now I'm totally burned out on revision so I'm taking a break entirely.

Anonymous said...

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. ;)

linda said...

Haha 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!

Jonathan Dalar said...

Sometimes you have to be overly snarky with yourself. It helps me, I know!

Charlotte Jane Ivory said...

Oh phew! Thanks guys, I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who snarks at herself!
PS 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.