September, what are YOU doing here?!?

Just a brief check-in with all my bloggy friends to say hallow, and confirm (yet again) that I've not bitten the big one (yet) (again).

I've been hard at work on edits on my current WIP after running it through the ringer with my critique group, and as of this week I've shipped it off to some gracious beta readers who will tell my what my eyes are too tired to see: what's actually wrong with it. I'm looking forward to it, the way a marathoner looks forward to the walk to the car after a run. Which is to say: yeesh.

Editing for me is a slippery slope. I often complain about clients in my day job changing their mind about how a product should look because they've been allowed to sit with it too long. Which is exactly what I do when I edit a manuscript. I've been left with it for so long that I'm SURE that scene is no longer powerful, and I just KNOW this subplot will be so much better if everyone wears purple. And oh, ha ha, let's just change the name of half the characters because Larry is a stupid name (which, in my defense, it was for that character).

So eventually I had to pump the brakes on myself and take a step back to hand it over to betas. Is it perfect yet? For sure not. But do I know where it's not perfect anymore? For SURE for sure not. I can't be trusted with that red pen, friends. Tis a far nobler thing I do, making my betas read it, than I've ever done before.

So I sent it off to betas, and now I'm decompressing my brain with some good old fashioned reading. I'd forgotten a little bit how to read without the backspace button, and it's surprisingly enjoyable. I'm reading for my book club, catching up on books I bought last year and forgot were in my e-reader, and reading books in the same genre as the next WIP I want to write. It's like finding the sun after being trapped in a mine for six months or so.

I'm big on the similes and metaphors today, apparently.

I'm easing back into a manuscript I started several months ago and sidelined as I worked on revisions for the current WIP, but so far I'm giving myself permission to go slow. I don't have to write every day, and I don't have to pump out 2,000 words every time I sit down.

YET.

I'm not good at the patience thing.

What are you up to? Are you sad the summer is over, or glad the heat is (almost) gone? How are your manuscripts doing?