Editing Continues…

August 31st, 2011

As indicated in the last post, I’m currently editing the Wario Land 4 articles into a book. The title of the book will be The Wario Land 4 Reader. I’ve been editing every free moment between work, socialising and life responsibilities and should be ready for publishing by the end of the year.

My plan of attack consists of 2 fronts. The first, a master edit where I edit and re-edit each post. Currently I’m a good chunk through the “Digging Deeper” part of the book which constitutes most of the analysis. I hope to finish the master edit by early to mid October at which point the book will be close to completion. After the master edit, I’ll be conducting a final edit where I prepare references for the web portal and clear any minor errors. During this time I’ll be preparing topical essays and filling in any blanks.

Starting from this week I’ll have 3 days off a week which should help build some momentum. My main fear, as has been all along, is that I’ll crash and burn out. I’ve been living in China now for a year and 4 months and won’t see my family for another 3 months. Writing this book has been wedged in between my first job out of uni, the first time I’ve lived by myself, and days off managing a long-term relationship. It’s fair to say that haven’t had a lot of down time these past 7 months.

I’m feeling doubtful that I’ll be ready for publishing this year and even then these processes take time. So don’t be surprised if the book is released in January next year. To focus on the project, I won’t be making posts about other games until I at least finish the master edit. I am, of course, taking lots of notes, so expect some in-depth material on Fire Emblem and Harvest Moon later on.

For now, my energy is in making this book as polished as I can get it and I’m quite confident that I’m meeting a high benchmark. If it takes a little more time to make the book that bit better, then it’s worth it. The editing process is teaching me A LOT about writing. I’m sure you’ll be able to see the results in the book and later articles. So far I’ve master-edited roughly 70 pages. I’m predicting that the book will end up at about 250 pages. Previously, I was thinking closer to 300, but the editing process is clearing up a lot of unneeded commentary.

Again, if you’re interested in contributing a topical essay to the book, please let me know. I may also be reaching out for some opinions and anecdotes in the future.