Editing is a Hoot.

Got down to the edits today after doing some necessary house cleaning and dealing with the every day life stuff. Honestly, I don't even feel the urge to write or edit until night time rolls around. It seems like I just get going when everyone else is ready for bed. But that's how it's always been since I was a child. "A night owl.' I get my best ideas at night when there is no one else around and the world outside is quiet.

Even while trying to sleep, my mind used to wander over my day.  Or, if I was really bored, I'd make up stories while my sisters slept soundly. Some of these would turn into epics.  Over time, though I struggled to sleep at night, I began to like the feeling of the night time.  At the end of a day full of people and their thoughts and opinions, I could be alone and think.

As I got older, I got a radio in my room and would listen to it, thinking it would help me sleep.  Instead, I'd imagine being a dancer, choreographing moves. So much for that.  I also discovered that I wanted to try acting and writing, or being an artist.  I suppose someone has to. As an adult I found I still wanted those things.  So, I've been working to make it happen.  And it is work.  Fun, but work.

Getting back to editing Bollywood Storm.  I am amazed at the results of the second draft.  I remember writing and re-writing scenes, taking them in for critique my writer's group, and then coming back home to write and re-write again. After that I was not able to read it for a year, One day it was the most brilliant work in the world, the next it was an embarrassment.  Writing is funny that way.  It has to sit, mostly undisturbed until you have gotten distance.  Thankfully, I am finally able to see and enjoy the flow of the work.  In editing, I have to be careful of what I change.  If I am thinking of the reader, instead of thinking of the text, I can change the feel of it - for the worst.  Thank goodness for previous versions.  Yeah, it's tricky.

Anyway, it's late...2:35 AM, to be precise.  I've been at it since about 8 PM, approximately.  Thank goodness it's the weekend so I can indulge in staying up late and enjoying the blissful quiet.  But now it's time to turn in.

N.K. Johel