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Puzzle Pieces
Oct. 22nd, 2008 04:37 pmI'm usually not very fond of editing. Back in the 1990s, editing a few RPG books (The Nephilim GameMaster's Companion, Tales of Chivalry & Romance and Tales of Magic Miracles) helped to kill my interest in working on RPG books for several years*. I don't like the drudgery of working through my own writing and I like working through someone else's even less.
So, today wasn't looking to be too fun, because my TODO list consisted of "edit the last two chapters of the iPhone book".
But, every once in a while, when I'm editing my own work I have a "puzzle piece" editing day. Looking at how everything is laid out in a work, I can suddenly see them as puzzle pieces, and I begin to realize how they could be reorganized to make for a better, more coherent piece of writing.
That was the case for me today on not just one, but on both of the chapters I was working on. Chapter 19 (on graphics) got polished up just a bit, but in some meaningful ways, while I'm doing some big reorganization on chapter 20 (on networking).
I screwed my schedule a bit--I should have finished both chapters today, but instead I'm only about two-thirds of the way done--but I have a little bit of flex built into it as long as I don't screw around tomorrow. And the chapters are definitely better as a result.
I love it when I can see the big picture stuff, not just the individual words and sentences calling out for relief.
--
* Working at Chaosium didn't help either; never do what you love as a profession.
So, today wasn't looking to be too fun, because my TODO list consisted of "edit the last two chapters of the iPhone book".
But, every once in a while, when I'm editing my own work I have a "puzzle piece" editing day. Looking at how everything is laid out in a work, I can suddenly see them as puzzle pieces, and I begin to realize how they could be reorganized to make for a better, more coherent piece of writing.
That was the case for me today on not just one, but on both of the chapters I was working on. Chapter 19 (on graphics) got polished up just a bit, but in some meaningful ways, while I'm doing some big reorganization on chapter 20 (on networking).
I screwed my schedule a bit--I should have finished both chapters today, but instead I'm only about two-thirds of the way done--but I have a little bit of flex built into it as long as I don't screw around tomorrow. And the chapters are definitely better as a result.
I love it when I can see the big picture stuff, not just the individual words and sentences calling out for relief.
--
* Working at Chaosium didn't help either; never do what you love as a profession.