Saturday Afternoon

Well, yesterday was lost in a blur or writing, and I also saw my sister, which was nice.

I woke up, as planned at a reasonable time, and got to work, got ready, cleaned up, and after cleaning up and eating, I started writing. I spent much of the day writing, until my sister and her friend came over.

We had a nice time, smoked a little bit, eventually went to Starbucks because her friend likes their drinks and can never get it because their town doesn’t have a Starbucks, and I had a gift card, so we went and got some of that. We came back, smoked, caught up, all that fun stuff. They are planning to come back into the city to take some pictures and check it out, all that jazz. I may or may not go with them, I really want to, but also I have so much damn writing to do, and I really need to prioritize that above pictures- although I do need pictures for the blog, so who knows…

Either way, she is gonna be on the way, or possibly already is, so I need to get dressed, so I should probably go do that and not do the blog, but I realized I needed to update the blog and neglect it, for all the creative writing I am doing.

So, until later…

Sunday Evening

Wow, I am exhausted. It isn’t crazy late or anything, only 8:30 PM.

But I have been getting to WORK on Flake City, trying to carve it into publishable material, as I want to have some illustrations, and also post to the blog…Iuno I have some idea I am working on but I have a fuck ton of editing and cobbling together of the material, so, this weekend, I got to work doing it.

My writing process, as it has evolved, is in large part to my ability to read fast and my inability to pay for a editor….and also the last time I paid for an editor they were fucking terrible and left more mistakes in than I had handed her, and it was fucking terrible.

So, instead of burning money to get shitty edits, I have developed a way to edit myself. It isn’t perfect but it is the best I personally can do, with he cards at play.

First, since I write long stuff, and this stuff has some nuances I need to check and sort through, so, my first read through is reading and taking notes, anything I haven’t written down that maybe I needed to, or any names, places, etc. I will sketch out a map, if I haven’t already, and I will make notes of timelines, to ensure everything I write is cohesive.

In this passing, I will allow myself to make changes or additions, adding things to make the story line make sense, since the later stuff has been written recently and I know where the story is going, I will sometimes make changes to make that stuff make more sense, or help the story be cohesive and continuous.

Next reading, I handle spelling mistakes, typos, continuity errors I caught but didn’t fix in the last reading. In this case, with Flake City, I will be having to knit two files together, to make one major file that will be published, so this is is the phase I will likely start to do this, having used the first reading to make notes on how to do so. I will probably not do a major edit here, as I think I can put the files together with little changes to either document, but this is the phase iw ill do this in.

Next reading, is when get nasty with it. This is the final edit before I print and get even more fucking critical, not having money for a real, trained editor. I triple check spellings, I make all the changes I have made notes for and found error with, I correct any typos. It is important to note that between each phase of edits I give my eyes a break, not reading the material, reading other stuff, writing other stuff, etc, and come back with fresh eyes. I also tend to do two “readings” per phase, minimum, and the first time, I do this backwards, starting at the end, namely to catch misspelled words and typos.

After this, when I feel I have adequately gone through the story so many times my eyes are sore, and I have checked every punctuation error, fixed every grammatical error, sorted every typo and misspelled word, and double checked every part of my story for a cohesive story line, after all of that, I finally will stop edits, for a while, normally a week, at least. I print the material out, I bind it in a way that allows for notes and reading to happen easily, having set the font to an easy to read font and left room for margins.

This reading, the first one is again, for continuity and cohesiveness of the story, but I do tend to find errors, normally, maddeningly, simply easy ones I should have spotted, that make me doubt myself.

Then, I check it back wards, and find even more. Doubt myself even more. I dread this phase.

I keep a book or two, or three or four, on hand, and in editing phase, I read, a lot, to keep eyes fresh for my own material, I read other peoples stuff, as a cleanser, so I can really dig into my own, without going crazy with boredom from my own.

Plus, reading other writing is a good way to keep yourself sane.

So, after this phase, I do one more read through, two if I find a bunch of mistakes, and then, make the changes to the digital copy.

When I make the changes, I tend to find more mistakes, and then, mercifully, I give myself a large break.

One more read through on the digital file.

Print again.

Read again, backwards then frontwards.

Make any changes.

Here, depending on the project, is when I let other eyes get their eyes on it. This process tends to yeild wonderfully edited material that is been combed through, and every time I then pass it to someone, they find it easy to read, and normally, only find a mistake or two, here or there, like a lowercase I or something like that. Small, easy to miss typos.

But, I don’t mind that. So, if anyone finds anything, I make those changes, do a couple more obsessive readthroughs, and call it done.

This time, however, I am illustrating this work of art, and I am actually really putting out different material, doing a whole new thing, publishing wise, so this template for editing applies to past projects, and the big stuff I plan on publishing or making “canon” as it were. Not blog stuff, but “will maybe get published in paper form” and “belongs in the magic universe in my head” stuff.

So, that is my editing process for publishing.

This Sunday has been full of editing, and yesterday had editing and writing. I did manage to get some meal prep done this Sunday, however, including making the beans for the week, prepping some bean and cheese burritos, and making a dope little pasta salad for the week.

I also did all the dishes for all of that, and the kitchen isn’t messy either, I cleaned the stove and counters a bit, swept up, Bret took he trash out, and voila.

Bret actually got a dope little tattoo today, as the final holiday present from me, and it looks AMAZING. I won’t post a picture here until he posts it to his Instagram, because sometimes his mom reads the blog and I would rather her see it from his social media than mine lifestyle blog, you know?

Anyways, Bret is in a pretty good mood from his tattoo, and I am pretty pumped about how much I did editing I got done, how much I prepped for the week, and how tidy it all is. Basically, I am pumped to be ready for the week.

From here on out, it’s all hella modest spending, to save for the many business related expenses for the blog, my writing and upcoming publishing, and Bret’s music. As you all know, we are working hard at saving and getting ourselves in a good position, while also publishing and releasing stuff, and also traveling, so, budgeting and careful spending is our new existence.

Here’s hoping we stick to it, and that it is as helpful as I am hoping, so it all comes together as planned.

Whatever, that’s all shit I have blogged about before, and recently at that, so, moving on, lets finish this blog update.

I got food prepped, I didn’t sleep in crazy late this weekend, so my sleep schedule isn’t fucked, I edited a TON of material, like over 100,000 words, I got the apartment reasonably cleaned, I spent a few hours with my sister, I got a ton of writing done, in addition to editing, writing like 20,000 words total this weekend, I got some new pictures for the blog cover photos and some other creative writing endeavors.

Overall, it was a pretty great weekend, a pretty great Sunday, and I am looking forward, to a pretty great week.

I hope you all have a wonderful week too. When this blog goes up, it is Monday morning, so let’s all kick today in the ass, and really win this week, eh? We deserve it.

Thanks for reading!

❤️

Abbi