Editing Hell

It's not writing, but editing I guess.

World War 1990: Operation Arctic Storm is doing great. Just check the Amazon rankings.

In the meantime I've been writing, re-writing, and editing the sequel, Operation Eastern Storm. God this is part that sucks, the part where I thrown my pencil down and proclaim, 'I'm getting a real job!' Another read-through, just to make sure there's character continuity, just to add a bit of character to some other characters simply because one of them will need to be named.

I'll explain.

One of the flaws in my writing style is my habit of referring to a periphery (one of my old poli-sci BS words) character by his title. The 'radioman', the 'XO' etc etc. This is actually something I picked up from the late Barbara Tuchman, the great historian who advised against putting too many names and place names in a sentence. 'Colonel Smith brought his B company North from Epionville while Colonel Bates brought C Company East from Apreville, with both B and C companies linking up at Granpre for a morning assault on Ancreville,' etc. Go on, tell me what I just described. You can't.

So its occurred to me that most of the 'XOs' and so forth in my books need a name, and therefore a bit of character. And not I got to go back through the whole MS and make sure Connor shows up in those scenes with Boyle.

I need a real job.