10 More Lies You Might Tell Yourself While Editing

Last month, I shared my "10 Lies You Might Tell Yourself While Editing." However, brutal honesty forces me to confess that I've told myself many, many more half-truths (or fictional facts - let's call them fictional facts - 'lie' is such a judgmental word) over the past seven years.

Here are ten more. Confession is good for the soul.

10. You meant to write this scene three times. It's an important scene.

9. No one will notice that the location of the rooms in the house keep moving. Or that the meadow leaps from the south side to the north side. 

8. Your main character isn't an insufferable prig. He's just wise.

7. The jokes are funny. I know, I wrote them. I'm funny. I am, I am, I am. 

6. (If, like me, you write mysteries) It doesn't matter that any of your first readers haven't been able to solve the mystery.

5. It matters even less that they all say your solution comes out of left field. It's not unsolvable - it's incredibly clever.

DANGER! DANGER, Will Robertson!!

Back to our list...

4. You can't have too many colourful, quirky characters. More is more.

3. Oh look. You didn't write that scene (see #10)  three times, you wrote it four times. Wow. It's like Rashomon.

2. Your main character is in two places at once. Obviously, he/she has an identical twin.

And one big truth...

1. Any editing pass will go quicker with chocolate. But...watch out for crumbs.

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Elspeth Antonelli is an author and playwright. Her latest mystery game,  "A Fatal Fairy Tale" was published in February. Her next game "Curiouser and Curiouser" will be published this month. All her murder mystery games and two plays are available through host-party.com. She has also contributed articles to the European writers' magazine Elias. Her blog, It's A Mystery, explores the writing process with a touch of humor. She is on Twitter as @elspethwrites