I would normally reserve this type of blog for my Friday "This Week in Writing," but I had to get this out now. I'm sure I'll still complain about it tomorrow, too.
Remember how I said I was looking forward to the challenge of indexing because I'd never done it before? Yeah, I'm over it. It has to be the most tedious, brain-paralyzing task ever. How am I suppose to know what people are going to want to look up in my book? How do I break ideas in subcategories? How do I list names?
There are references out there that help with this kind of stuff--sort of--but it's still my ultimate call to decide if it needs to be in the index. Thank goodness I have help. My index would be incredibly half-assed without Tamara.
The other night, I spent HOURS sitting in front of my computer typing in page numbers for important ideas. HOURS! When I woke up the next day, my back was sore and my shoulders hurt from being hunched over. I was convinced my eyes were going to fall out of my head. And I'm not even done. I still have HOURS ahead of me to finish this thing.
(My spouse made the comment that I probably shouldn't tell people I'm so out of shape that sitting made me sore. What does he know? I wasn't just sitting, I was working hard, straining my eyes and body to find "important" ideas.)
I now know why indexers get paid well. Next time, I'm searching one of them out. I thought maybe it would be something I'd like to do, but no. I'm pretty sure it would push me so far over the edge I'd have to be committed to an asylum.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. The process can't last forever, and I can't wait to be done!
