I know, try not to let the shock permanently damage your nervous system. But I got quite a bit done on chapter 1 of Trust. Because I had the writing group look over the chapter, I had all these different edits of the chapter. And for whatever reason (coughcoughburnoutcoughcough) when I'd look at them, it was too overwhelming. I just couldn't deal with everything that needed fixing.

This time I just went right into Experienced Writer Mode, taking one edit, going through and making the changes that were easy to make, and then taking the next edit and doing the same (everyone had very useful suggestions for tightening, and I basically took them all). At the same time, I made notes of suggestions that were more amorphous--generally stuff like adding more background.

Then I ran out of time. One of the reasons I haven't been editing is because I've been trying to do too many things at once--get X amount of exercise, do Y with the house, etc.--and I decided that I need to be more ruthless. If I don't get as much exercise as I "should" while I'm editing, that's just too bad. (And on the flip side, if I exercise rather than edit, I can't pat myself on the back for being such a good person.) Perfectionism is rather notorious for making people less productive, and I've definitely been falling into that trap. I mean, the house works a lot better now, which is certainly nice, but it's not like everything needs to be absolutely optimized TODAY or the world will come to an end--better to spend that time taking out one's obsessiveness on one's prose, no?

Nonetheless, I have certain commitments (like I had today) that I can't just put on the back burner, namely the kids. And I'm going to be on a much heavier caretaking schedule in the second half of August, so you know, I better edit while I can!