April 2024 Writing update

Man, editing kinda sucks, huh?

Especially when you’ve never done it for a novel before, it sucks. Looking back on some of the chapters I wrote at the beginning of this thing, I’m more trying to remember what was even going on in that point in the story rather than fine tune the material itself. Is this chapter necessary for the overall arc of the narrative? Great question, I don’t really even know what happens in this chapter. Guess I should read what I wrote four months ago and find out.

As luck, or misfortune, would have it, I seem to have overshot my page goal by about 120. Oops. So that means roughly 30% of the entire manuscript needs to be getting the axe. Or, at the very least, I need to find little haircuts all over said manuscript to get it reduced by about 30%. That is A LOT of percents, mind you. So far, with my editing, the most trimming I’ve done for a chapter has maybe shortened it 300 words out of 1,800. So, even on my best day, I’m really not reaching the goals I need to reach. But, there is a benefit to that. I seem to be getting...better? Better at cutting and trimming and excising. Better at knowing what’s necessary and what this narrative likely could do without. It was impossible at first, knowing how to approach a given chapter and decide what parts of it were destined for a premature grave. But, with each day, and each editing session, I seem to be developing my flow and working patterns more and more. Soon, I should actually be able to dive right in to the day’s chapter and figure out what needs going and which lucky segments get to stay.

Hopefully, anyway.