Line editing

 

When I wrote my first novel I was working through the recovery from my injuries after being hit by a car while riding my bicycle. I was able to think, compose and hand write at the same time. Knowing I was going to need a bone marrow transplant, my intention was to edit my handwritten first draft while typing it after the operation. I had never attempted such an ambitious creative writing project, and the strategy was useful for distracting me from my physical situation and I was able to accomplish my goal. Through the 3 month process of getting my commercial driver's license I was staying in a hotel in the town where the school is located. Between the training I occupied myself by editing the typed second draft. This working method was great because I was able to focus and accomplish my goals quickly. While that third draft is not in a state I would consider finished, I am satisfied with the work product.

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I'm currently composing the first draft of my second novel, and life requires a completely different strategy. I have plenty of time to think while I am driving but no way to record any of my thoughts or plans. Frequently I don't even have the time or energy to record them at the end of the day, And so I have had to improve my memory. The plots of my current project and its characters are much more complicated. The tasks I set for myself, The structural challenges I set for myself are a lot more demanding. In this case the handwritten first draft only exists in my mind. There are some scattered notes written in journals, some notes made speech to that I that I copy and paste into document on the computer, but sitting down to organize it all and compose is a cognitive marathon. When I first began I didn't know what the story was about or who it was about... I only knew the theme and that I wanted to write sections of historical fiction. I've been working on it now 5 years this April. I began the project so that I would have something to think about and keep me company over the road. 

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Now I fully understand the plot and the characters in my mind and I am plodding Through the actual work of writing the damn thing. My memory has improved tremendously. I can hold the short term work to do in my mind until I'm actually able to sit down and write it out. When that time comes I am able to stay within the structural challenges I set for myself in particular chapter, And I am able to put the nuances and details of the writing in that I hope will create the larger elements of the plot that I want to carry through the entire book.

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However trying to compose an actual first draft while sort of simultaneously doing the line editing of the second draft is a demanding activity. I'm only able to do it when i'm sitting undisturbed safe at home, Or on some kind of a layover where I know I don't have to pay attention to anything related to my job.

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The passage I'm reading here is the setup for the description of a sequence of events that led up to the murder that I want to write in reverse sequential order quickly. My goal is to describe everything that led up to her first secret intoxication in less text than this passage. From there she will be confronted by her father and the events that unfold next will move forward through time. There is a basic premise in psychology that the root of addiction is usually found in some kind of early childhood wound. So, here I am trying to write about the wound from the outside in, then forward into the effects of the addiction on the life going forward, set in a time when people's lives were closely organized by supernatural forces and their identity subsumed into group consciousness.

Line editing is time-consuming and intense activity for how seemingly relaxed a scene it happens in. Another paradox of complex creative writing is how much structure it gives to my life and inner world even though it is completely unwieldy imaginary undertaking.