3-2-1 and the Editing Has Begun

I have spent the past 3 hours today, plus 2 hours yesterday, editing the first five stories that are up for review on Week One.

And I have learned something very important about myself, something I know pretty much already but was very obvious today: I'm not very patient with myself.

I like to know things. Now. I hate struggling with something that I know that I will be very good at in a week's time but am having a hard time with at the moment. For example, I'm learning how to do stuff in AP Style and I've only written in MLA format before. And, while AP Style is turning out to be fairly easy to learn, I'm having to learn it on the spot and apply it in what I'm doing. If I can't find it, then I have to contact one of the other copy editors to help me and I know that they're getting tired of my endless questions. Is this supposed to be capitalized? Do I have to state that it's the website specifically? Do I have to keep using Individual Honors or can I just shorten it to Honors? Do I have to use the "he said" and "she said" all the time? (That one kills me the most.) The list is endless.

I was relieved and terrified to send the completed stories to the chief editor, not know if I had caught all the corrections or not. The feeling of failure terrifies me.

This is probably a reason why I'm having so much trouble writing a second draft of my novel. My first draft is there, the idea is there, the basic plotline is there, but I'm afraid to get it done, get it edited, and get it rejected. The fact that I'll be published by October means very little to me because it is friends of mine (well, friends of Jo's) who are publishing my two stories and, while I know that all the professional astronomers who have heard the stories have thought they were good, I still haven't ever had to go through the terrifying process of submitting them to an editor to decide whether or not they are worthy of a book.

Today, I thought I would post the stories that my two sweet little cousins wrote when I was living with them two weeks ago. I'm sure they wont mind if I post them, since Mary is 5 and Zac is 7. This whole thing started when I first got to Bakersfield a couple of weeks ago and told Mary that I would make her into my little prodigy. She decided that she didn't like the stories I wrote and read to her (because she's 5 and who can honestly understand Pluto's issues with planethood at 5?) so she made me jump onto my laptop and write this little gem (btw, I somewhat corrected these stories grammatically so they would make more sense but the ridiculousness of it still belongs to the kids):

The End Book

There once was a girl who liked to sleep. Her mom said it was time for breakfast and her mom told her it was time for lunch and time for dinner and she didn’t eat any food. And she died when she was sleeping. The end.

After which, Zac heard what we were doing and decided that I needed to write one for him:

Zoo Mischief

Once upon a time there was a zookeeper. Once day, a chimp got out of his cage. He stole the keys from the zookeeper and unlocked every animal from their cages in the zoo. A little girl saw an elephant and patted its back. The elephant fell fast asleep and the zookeeper heard the elephant snoring. Quickly, he rushed to gather up all of the animals and locked back in their cages once again, especially the naughty chimpanzee. The end.

And Mary demanded a third, which was interuppted in the middle due to a phone call so I'm sure that's why it sounds a little odd:

Space Chimps

There were once three chimps. The littlest chimp said, “I have a mission.” The chimp went into space with his mommy and daddy. The chimp went into space. The big boy chimp went inside and then got out and the ship blasted back. He said, “Chimps don’t leave chimps behind.” Then they made a new rocket. They went back into space. The end.

At this point, I saved their stories and switched back to working on my novel. Mary put up a fuss s0 I ignored her most of the time and she ended up sitting next to me on the couch, staring blankly at what I was writing, and pointing to a paragraph every couple of seconds and asking "what does that say?" She's a very vocal kid. I love her, though.

She and I spent one evening taking crazy pictures on my laptop (because I have the Mac Photobooth). Here's a few of my favorites:Zac joined in here.
This is the totem pole with Mary, myself, and one of my uncles.
I taught her how to do a fish face.
She gives the weirdest kisses. They're all large and sloppy and wet but... gotta love 'em.
I don't actually look like this but Jo thought it was hilarious and forced me to post it. He just told me he wants to blow it up and put it on his wall. Meh.
Duuuuuuuhhhh.....
Cousins Unite!

None of these photos are flattering, of course, but it shows that, when Mary and I do get along, we have a TON of fun. I can't wait until she's old enough to come and stay with me for a week.