Originally posted on February 10, 2010 at 2:41 PM
As my regulars know, I’m in the tedious process of extending the word count of my novel, St. George’s Eve. Adding words, phrases, and sentences here and there on every page takes forever, and honestly, isn’t much fun. What I have found, to my surprise, is that (at least the way I’m doing it, which is very discriminately) it actually makes my work better. So, it’s a lesson learned. But what is fun, more often than not, is adding entire new passages. Simply because it doesn’t take so long and it feels more natural to me.
Being the slave-driver that I am, I don’t allow myself to do these passages as I come to them. Even though they’re more enjoyable, they take away from the time I’ve set aside for the page-by-page process and I end up procrastinating.
So as I scroll through, adding bits here and there, I eventually come across a portion that can be expanded drastically by adding an entirely new section to the text. Not wanting to get sidetracked, I simply type “PINEAPPLE” and highlight it in yellow. Then I trudge along my merry little way with tiny snippets that take forever to add up to any 0’s in my final word count.
Once a week, I allow myself to search for pineapples.
I find all of them, with my “find” tool under “edit,” and choose the one that best suits my creative mood at the time. Then I get to really stretch my legs and go for a jog—metaphorically, of course. This is fun.
Why once a week? My critique group meets once a week on Tuesdays. I like to have something to take to that, or it feels like wasted time. And since I will have to write all of the pineapples eventually anyway, I always write one in time for this. It’s like a weekly allowance to reward myself for good endurance. And this week is sucky for me, so I’m getting an advance on my pineapples.
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