Dear Edmos,
March is over. I’m not sure whether I should be elated or sad by this pronouncement I have to make. What I can say, however, is a big giant CONGRATULATIONS to those who made it to fifty hours.
To those who didn’t make it to fifty hours… think about this… even those who did most likely still have a lot of editing left to do in order to make their novels publishable. I can pretty much guarantee that one round of editing will not suffice for anyone. We have all just begun the editing process, or maybe some of you have been editing for months already, and this is your way of wrapping up your novel. Either way, I think everyone by now knows just how much work it is to write and edit a novel, never mind trying to get it published.
CONGRATULATIONS for picking up that red pen and giving it a try in the first place. Many people don’t even get that far, and you did, which means you all deserve a nice big round of applause.
But you’re on a roll, and you’re not going to let anyone or anything stop you. Right? Right.
Remember that. You’re a writer and you’re going to write. Even if your ultimate goal is not to get published, you still want your novels to shine. Of course you do.
So keep at it, even after March is over.
In the meantime, we’ll be working on making sure the website stays up and running next year. We’ll also be changing the color scheme too, so it will be easier to read for everyone. Basically, we have a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff we need to do, but rest assured we’ll be back again next year kicking and screaming and better than ever.
I created a slogan for this year’s Edmo that said let’s make this year better than last year… or something like that. As you can see, I clearly jinxed us, giving us the worst year ever with the website going down all the time. I abandoned the slogan a quarter of the way through the month with the way things were going. But let’s hope it can’t be bad two years in a row.
With all of that, I leave you off with two pieces of writerly advice:
a) Stop complaining about making too many mistakes. Why? It happens to everyone. Every published author out there had to get his or her start from somewhere. Even they wrote garbage when they were younger. Even they write garbage now. You just don’t see it. Even they misplace commas and misspell words and mix up plot lines that cause major rewrites of an entire manuscript. It’s the writer’s life. It happens. Just go with the flow and use every mistake as a learning tool. When you’re 102 years old you’re still learning something every day, even if it’s how to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
b) Stop Stopping. March might be over, but as I’ve said above, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re done editing your novel. If you stop now, just because Edmo is over, you’ll lose your momentum. Momentum is one of the most important things in helping a writer get his or her work done. Remember that. Keep up the editing, keep up the momentum, don’t stop, and you’ll get that novel done a lot sooner than you would otherwise.
And with that, I bid you adieu, and good luck on the rest of your novel. I’ll see you again next March for another crazy month of editing!
-Anna
(QueenOfTheUniverse)
