This July, I’ve decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo. I set an hourly editing goal rather than a word count goal. Editing is my major focus, and I’m feeling a bit at sea.

I participated in April and wrote over 30,000 words on my WIP. Hooray! When I walked away from the story in April, I felt like I had made a significant dent. Toward the end of the month, I actually said, “I think I’ve written all I need to write.” Famous last words, right?

Turns out, drafting is a lot easier than editing.

When I draft, I’m able to fully immerse myself in the writing. I tell my inner editor to go away for a while, so I can concentrate. But when you lock out your inner editor and give yourself the freedom to write shitty first drafts, you, uh, write shitty first drafts.

I have a lot of good material to work with. Some scenes where I pleasantly surprised myself. But there are other places where I skimmed over major plot points because they were difficult to write, or I needed to think about them more.

Now I get to tease out those difficult places.

I’m excited to go back and really dig into a longer piece of writing. I’ve never attempted a work this large. And I’ve never attempted to edit a work that I care about this much.

The work is showing up, but it’s also the details.