At some point many years ago I thought that perhaps I had some potential as a writer. I didn’t know how much (I still don’t for that matter), but I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could do this some day. I realized this because of my daydreams. At times they are incredibly vivid. I have whole conversations either with myself or some imagined person. Tonight is no exception. I managed to get about 1k words done on my book (yay!) and I was taking a break to read some of Dean Wesley Smith’s ‘Killing the 10 Sacred Cows of Publishing’. I only got through a couple of pages. Part of that is I’m pretty tired now, but the rest was because I started daydreaming. Mr. Smith was talking about his time as an editor, which made me wonder what it would be like to be a new editor?

I suddenly found myself being introduced to my new desk and office. My computer had a three monitor setup (one monitor is so very limiting after all) and a marginally comfortable chair. I was ready to get down to business. Being a new editor though, I was only given a short story to work on. Just a couple of pages. I asked about the deadline and they said by the end of the day was fine. Man, already I was bored. (I’d been editing professional writing for government purposes for the past four years or so, until the layoff.) Then I was having a conversation with my boss about just how in-depth they wanted me to go on the edit. Technical only for grammar, spelling, and the like? Or a deep dive into the guts of the story itself? Or both? 🙂

It was a fun little daydream. Very vivid. When I’m really into my book, that’s how I see the scenes I’m working on. It runs through my head like a movie in slow-motion, or just very short bursts that rewind constantly. Tons of tiny loops until I’ve laid down the scene and action to my liking. Those are the best times. I’m too into the scene in my head to worry about how much I might be sucking at putting it down in words. It’s always easier to write when your inner critic can’t interfere.