The Big Changes

My writing life = I've been sitting at this computer since 9:30 in the morning, which was thirty minutes after I woke up and twenty minutes after I had finished making and eating my delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and ham.  It is currently 11:30, and I still have six more pages of hand-written edits to put into the computer.  Yesterday, I did the same exact thing: spent all morning putting edits into the computer, and I expect to spend the majority of tomorrow in the evening doing more editing.

The edits, guys.

As I said, I'm making a lot of big changes into my current story, and, as I do so, I realize that some of these massive changes are creating more flow-mistakes, which will, in return, require more editing.  Yay.  So, lucky for you guys, you get to be the recipients of a rant on MY TOP-THREE, EDIT-REQUIRING CHANGES:

NUMBER 1.) WEATHER CHANGES

Because I'm surprisingly slow when it comes to plain, laid-out, it-was-in-your-face-how-could-you-not-see-it stuff, I tend to ignore weather consistency.  For example, my story's assassin school is on the Alcatraz Island of the future, and, if you've ever been to Alcatraz (I haven't, but I looked it up), you know that it is always either sunny, raining, or foggy there, but the temperature doesn't fluctuate too greatly.

Well, guess what I - genius me - did?

I made it snowy.  And then I made the snow something of a plot point.  So then, when I realized that it doesn't snow on Alcatraz...like...ever...I had to go back and change the snow.  And then I had to fix the plot point that rested on the fact that it would be snowy in Alcatraz.  And that took a long time, guys.  And this is a common occurrence for oh-so-smart me.

NUMBER 2.) DEATH CHANGES

Most of you in the crowd on the other side of the computer screen are authors, so you're not surprised, like many readers are, when characters in famous novels (*coughDIVERGENT-HUNGERGAMES-MAZERUNNER-FAULTINOURSTARS-PERCYJACKSONcough*) die.  As authors in the twenty-first century, we are practically paid to kill characters and give our readers a catharsis and an obsession as they weep over the fate of some poor dead waifu.

Hint hint, though: MY PET PEEVE IS KILLING CHARACTERS UNNECESSARILY.  If they don't need to die for the sake of the plot, why stress to kill them when I could just as easily torture my readers by torturing my readers' waifus?  =.=  As a result of this counter-cultural pet peeve, I end up killing characters, resurrecting them months later, and then deciding to kill them again as I write, rewrite, and write again and try to decide whether the story is enhanced by someone-or-another's death or wounded by the taken-up grave slot.

Now, you know, hypothetically, let's just imagine for one short little second how many changes you must make if you are to kill a character and then change your mind later.

Not cool, guys.

NUMBER 3.) PERSONALITY CHANGES

Obviously, I outline my stories.  I have a plot.  I use the plot.

...and then, generally, about 100 pages in, I begin to think, "Why...why...WHY am I using this personality type for this main character?  The plot requires an adventurous, free-thinker who is motivated to make such-and-such a decision that will move the plot forward, but my character is timid and easily used and not likely to do anything unless PAID."

Sometimes, if the paranoia continues on long enough, I give up and just rewrite a character's entire personality, which includes: thoughts, narrative, and dialogue...aaand this is what I'm doing for Patra, one of my main three protagonists in my current novel.

AND IT'S HORRIBLE.

Rawww...reee...rooo...

That vent didn't help any.

I still have oodles of editing to do.

Do you?

I like noodles too.

...aaand, I'm going cookoo.

Before I leave you, you should listen to the beloo...I mean, below:

Write on!
Clove
P.S. ISN'T THE SONG WONDERFUL?  WHY CAN'T I STOP LISTENING TO IT?!  ^_^