It’s a dull, cloudy, very chilly day here in Freya-land. I am somewhat envious of my friends and family who live further north than I (it wouldn’t be hard, I live on the south coast of the UK) and are currently experiencing snow. I can but hope that the clouds that I saw on my morning walk and the clouds that I still see from the window in front of me are full of snow, but I doubt it. They’re not the right kind of clouds, not pregnant enough with the possibility. Hey ho. I’d love to be proved wrong!
Over the past few days I’ve edited a short story that I wrote a few years ago, as part of my mission to submit shorter works to fiction magazines. It’s fascinating how, with some hindsight, you can so easily pinpoint the unnecessary parts, the odd repetition of words in neighbouring sentences, the turn of phrase that isn’t stylistically appropriate – the ‘mistakes’. I am going to pat myself on the back a little because this editing process hasn’t resulted in my inner critic telling me how rubbish I am, how I was an idiot to submit this story in the first place and so on, ad nauseam. What did happen was that I realised I had grown as a writer, that I am now able to cast an objective eye over past me’s work and be kind to myself. I’m not promising that I’ll always be able to respond in this adult manner, but I’ll take it for now. I’m currently in a good writing place.
And that takes me on to my next thought. Once I’ve re-read my novel Anti-Virus (which I have printed out on (recycled) paper) and once my beta reader has also followed up with her thoughts, I’m planning on sending it to a real, live editor. That will be… an experience. However, it is one that I am relishing. I don’t want my book baby to be unleashed without a professional eye cast over it. Of course, no book can be perfect and it will never be enjoyed by everyone that reads it, but I want to give it a decent chance, and an objective editor can go a long way to help with that.
2021 is going to be an interesting year, in many, many ways.
What do you have planned for the coming months? And what has your experience been of using professional editors? I’d love to know!
Freya Writes... 
Dancing Meditatively
Music In Earbuds
Same Reading
Several Books
For Free
In Laser
Focus This
Way Just
Crazily
Entertaining
A Sitting Star
Bucks Crowd Same
Every Sunday Afternoon
In Barnes
And Noble
Freddy Free Loader
InDeed i Give The Rest
Away
Of What
i Do Freely
Over Years
Online
And
Dancing
Offline in
Millions
Of Views
Hehe Saving
A Forest of Trees
To Possibly Even
Hold What i Write
Electronically
Other Than
That
i Understand
Muse Of The
Barnes And
Noble Way
Not
Adding
Anything
There Bigger
Than 8th
Grade
To
Collect Dust…
And That’s Okay
For i Also
See Value
In All
The
Books
i read For
Free And all
The ones
i Give
Away
In
8.8
Million
Words No
Different
Than
Steps Still
Counting 14,244
Miles of Public
Dance
In
88 Months too…
Writing, Directing,
P R O D U C iN G
Photographing,
Editing,
Publishing
Acting
The
Whole
Dam Play
No Time
Left
To
Die
Making
Any Money
At All Yet of
Course
Reality
If i Still
Had To Work
For The Pay
Of The Money
God With
Stock
In
‘Trump’
Hell
i Would
Slave
Away
For
CoalS AGAiN
Honestly
Without
The
God Of
Money in
Play Time
Out of
Time
For
Heaven
Eternally
Now Never
Ever Trapped
In A Cover
And
Pages
Resistant to Change💫🥳
I love your responses, every time! I have been thinking that once I have scribbled over my papery manuscript, I will reuse the words, cut them and slice and make poetry out of them. Or free-writing, like playing a new game to which only I know the rules. The possibilities are endless!
Oh God Yes i Write
Literally Everything
i Do on my
Facebook
Wall
At Least
100,000
Words A Month
Along With All
The 200,000
Or So Photos
Approaching
10,000 on
Facebook
Too Each
Day 88
Months
Of These
Facebook
Memories
Intuitively
Now i
Select
From incorporating
Them Into
What i Am
Doing
On Top
Yes Literally
On Top of
The Facebook
Wall i Copy
And Paste
The Verses
In Reverse
This Way
To My
Blog All
In All
The
Chaos
MaGiC
Is Always
New
Deeper
Sublime
In Feelings
The Effective
Result
Creates
In Newer
Colors
Never
VieWeD
Before
Within
All Beyond
Measure
Next
Practical
White Chaos
MaGiC Yes This
Never Ending
Story Just
Newer
Heaven
Within Always
Now Never
Fear Or
Boring
Just Newer Bliss
Haha And
Facebook
Becomes
My Slave
Just A
Tool
For
My Delicious
Pay Machine my Slave
For
Even
More
Heaven
Freedom Now🥳