I have just recently started to dig into the edits for the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2014 and it is a surprise. I put it off because it’s not a particularly easy story to read everyday, it deals with my life growing up with my schizophrenic father.

Now that I have dug in I am equal parts excited and terrified. I love and believe in the story and what it can grow to be but it is emotionally draining to relive certain events over and over again.

I remind myself that I have thrived and most of the time these stories now in retrospect make me laugh, it’s not often you can chuckle about being in a drive-by shooting…

Does anyone have any tricks they use to keep themselves on track when editing or even writing an emotionally draining story?