S. McPherson's Blog: On my way to being a writer - Posts Tagged "edit"

Now comes the time to rewrite; a task much easier said than actually done. I sit down and stare mindlessly at my computer feeling as if I'm trying to make sense of a Picasso painting, solve the Da Vinci code or find the 27th letter of the alphabet.

Needless to say, I encounter a few hiccups; great hefty ones that send me flying off my seat and smack my head into the ceiling. How do I rewrite my novel 30,000 words shorter? What 30,000 words are irrelevant? Taking a deep breath, I roll up my sleeves and decide to give it a shot. I'm not going to lie.... it doesn't end well...

1 dash of innocence
2 cups of hopeful
1 tablespoon of insanity
1 KG of creativity
1 bucket-load of drawings

This was my recipe for self-publishing my first children's story. I started with the bucket-load; the longest but possibly most fun process after writing. First I drew them. Then I photocopied them. Then I coloured them. Then I scanned them. Then I decided I didn't like the colours I'd chosen (because why not make life more difficult?) so I did it again and again and again.

Finally I realised that the look I wanted, I didn't quite know how to get, so I went on a mission to find someone to digitally edit my images. Let's call this someone, The Tool; the thing I used to get the job done. The Tool digitally remade my images, slapped on a hefty fee and voila, they were ready to go; or so I thought. Hindsight is always 20/20.