I'm home!

So this week has been spring break for me, which means I've been slacking off on everything. Except knitting. Because I have a major project due in May, and I've been working on that. And also sleeping. And also watching "Friends," because it's spring break and I have a free month of Netflix.

I'm considering changing my posting schedule, because obviously I have barely posted since J-term. I'm now leaning towards a Tuesday/ Thursday/ Saturday posting schedule, or something similar therein. I'm still hoping to do three posts a week, but Tuesday/ Thursday/ Saturday seems to have the most interesting things happen on those days.

As for the Game of Thrones posts, I know I've been slacking. I've barely read anything since February. I'm going to fix that soon, but with a slight modification. Instead of posting two chapters a week, I'm going to post a big book review and summary at the start of the summer (probably early June). I'll have everything up to date by then, hopefully.

For now, I'm going outside to enjoy the ACTUAL SPRING WEATHER!!!

Things I have Learned About Organization

Being the treasurer of a fraternity is difficult; I have to be on top of EVERYTHING; if I'm not, the organization is in trouble.

From what I've learned so far, here are EIGHT THINGS ABOUT BEING ORGANIZED!

1. Write everything down. EVERYTHING.

Someone gave you $10 for dues? WRITE IT ON YOUR HAND UNTIL YOU CAN MAKE A RECORD OF IT. Someone paid you for fines? WRITE IT DOWN. Paper trails are important on both sides of the equation. I can show people the confirmation email that yes, I DID warn them that fines would start after spring break; hopefully, both of us have a copy of the receipt I wrote for the dues they already paid. WRITE EVERYTHING.

2. Paper trails are frustrating but important.

See #1 about writing everything down. Paper trails are confirmation that everything is going the way it needs to be.

3. Excel is your best friend.

Aside from keeping track of who has (or hasn't) paid their dues and fines, Excel has also helped me keep my budget for the chapter straight. After asking everyone on executive board to submit a budget, Excel shows me how much they've spent and how much they have left. It also shows me that we might not have the budget for some things, and how much we would need to fundraise to afford it.

4. Envelopes are life.

Seriously. Dues go in one envelope. Receipts from dues go in another envelope. Receipts from e-board's expenses are in another envelope. The checkbook and balance sheet are in another. Instead of everything being a mess and trying to decipher who went over-budget and where, you can just look in the EXPENSES ENVELOPE!

5. Paper trails.

This goes back to #1, but it's important. Chapter money is chapter money, and if there's a contest about how much money chapter should have, the paper trails help you backtrack.

6. Plan ahead.

I needed to have payment plans available a month ago to make sure everyone had the chance to tell me how they wanted to pay their dues. I can't randomly tell everyone in the chapter that they owe me money TONIGHT and fines will start next week. That's not fair to the chapter. I also have to know in advance what payment plans each person wants so I know that they SHOULD be fined now, and how much they owe the chapter in fines.

7. "I'm not sure, I need to check my records" is a phrase I have been saying a lot.

But having the records means I don't need to know off the top of my head. What if my memory messes up? What if I hit my head and become comatose - how am I supposed to remember who has and hasn't paid me what? Also, next year there will be a new treasurer; how are they supposed to know who has outstanding fines if I didn't make a record in the first place?

8. Back everything up.

Again, paper trails. Also, continuity in the event of power transfer and/ or amnesia.

On Editing

Editing novels is difficult. It's necessary, but it's difficult. In the last week of working on editing my 2011 NaNoWriMo novel, I have learned that there are a few major ways of self-editing.

PART ONE
The first kind is basic copyediting - did I accidentally put a space between a word and its quote? Did I accidentally write "too" instead of "to"? This happens sometimes in any academic paper; it's just harder to catch when the document is over 200 pages long.
I'm not sure if this counts as copyediting, but I also rejoin contractions in this stage. When I was writing the novel initially, I was thinking more about word count than quality, so I didn't contract words - I said "do not" instead of "don't" and "did not" instead of "didn't," for example. This is no longer necessary and often sounds very forced, so I'm embracing the apostrophe once more.


PART TWO
The next major kind of editing is phrasing. Does this phrase sound awkward? Would this character actually say this thing? Has this person already said this thing on this page? If so, is the repetition necessary, or can I say "I averted my eyes and bit my lip" instead of "I was unsure about this plan?" Would that person do that if they were unsure? It's also a bit concerned with "would this character really say that, or would their scene partner be more likely to say that?"


PART THREE
The last major editing technique is the most important and the most difficult. This is characterization editing. I haven't gotten here much yet; right now, I'm trying to just get the novel to not sound terrible. Once that happens, I can focus more on the character traits. That's not to say that I HAVEN'T been focusing on the character traits; as I mentioned in the last heading, characterization is always in some part of my mind. Characterization editing is less involved with "would this character say this thing?" It's more involved with "What sort of voice does this character have that would cause them to use this phrase? Would they really be unsure about this action? So-and-so says that this character does thus-and-so a thing; does so-and-so have a cause to say that? Should I make sure they have a cause to say that, or should I cut that line for them?"

WRITING UPDATES!

I know I didn't post all of last week, and I apologize for that. I now, however, have THINGS TO TELL YOU ABOUT!

I'm starting to edit my NaNoWriMo 2011 novel. (By "edit," I mean "try to decipher my super-tiny handwriting in order to type it up, and then try and make it sound better than 50 Shades of Gray.") It's interesting to go back and see what I wrote and how I wrote it, seeing as this is my first novel.
Part of me is really excited to go back and reread what I wrote in my senior year of high school. The rest of me has seen the quality and is straining in the opposite direction.
To be fair, when 2020 rolls around, Future Me is probably going to say the same thing about the writing I'm doing now. Maybe even this blog post. I don't know.

This is an interesting opportunity to look back, though, because I'm editing it as someone who will be 21 next month, who has two semesters of Shakespeare courses behind her, eight semesters of college, and several journalism courses now behind me. I also have several friends who are writing tutors who can help me through the process.
If 19-year-old me were editing this, I doubt there would be much improvement. The rambling sentences would still be around. So would the extraneous characters and the dialogue points that don't suit the character speaking them.
Now, in other words, I actually have something to go off of.