So very, very close
Jun. 5th, 2011 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaSkywatch drove me crazy today, which is okay in the grand scheme of things because I haven't been spending enough time on it, but in the short run is, well, crazy-making.
I got within four words of 50k . . .
. . . and then had to go chop up a chapter, dropped down to 49,911 words, and ended the day at 49,957 words. My brain just stopped working for the purposes of intensive editing. I poked at a new scene for about half an hour, trying to add 43 more words so I could hit 50k, but it didn't cooperate. So close!
On the other hand, I am making progress with the list o' Big Changes. I've managed items 1, 2, 3 and 5 reasonably well, and plan to tackle 4 into submission tomorrow. 5 and 3 also need more poking at, and I anticipate more work on 1 after I get it back from my next reader, but that is the future and right now (aka tomorrow) I need to hit 4 with a big stick. A red stick.
I always find editing at this stage to be a very disjointed experience--I'm working with the entire manuscript at once, trying to pepper in backstory and worldbuilding and foreshadowing and character arcs without infodumping at any one point, so unless I'm working intensely on one chapter or scene, I jump around in the manuscript. Maybe I'm trying to convey that the City in the Sky has a certain attitude about something, so instead of just infodumping it in one spot, I jump around in a bunch of scenes in the chapters before knowing this is necessary and write little snippits of background, dialogue and setting that convey this attitude in subtler ways, so that when it comes up textually at a later point, readers will already know what the heck I'm talking about.
As a totally random example, of course.
Item 4 on the list o' Big Changes is one of these, where I'm going to have to pepper the ms with individual sentences separated by whole chapters, and on top of the intense chapter editing I did today, I made the executive decision to hold it for tomorrow.
I also have a short story deadline coming up that I'm totally unprepared for, but I'm in Skywatch mode right now, so . . . I may continue to be totally unprepared for it. Oh, well. Such is life.
I got within four words of 50k . . .
. . . and then had to go chop up a chapter, dropped down to 49,911 words, and ended the day at 49,957 words. My brain just stopped working for the purposes of intensive editing. I poked at a new scene for about half an hour, trying to add 43 more words so I could hit 50k, but it didn't cooperate. So close!
On the other hand, I am making progress with the list o' Big Changes. I've managed items 1, 2, 3 and 5 reasonably well, and plan to tackle 4 into submission tomorrow. 5 and 3 also need more poking at, and I anticipate more work on 1 after I get it back from my next reader, but that is the future and right now (aka tomorrow) I need to hit 4 with a big stick. A red stick.
I always find editing at this stage to be a very disjointed experience--I'm working with the entire manuscript at once, trying to pepper in backstory and worldbuilding and foreshadowing and character arcs without infodumping at any one point, so unless I'm working intensely on one chapter or scene, I jump around in the manuscript. Maybe I'm trying to convey that the City in the Sky has a certain attitude about something, so instead of just infodumping it in one spot, I jump around in a bunch of scenes in the chapters before knowing this is necessary and write little snippits of background, dialogue and setting that convey this attitude in subtler ways, so that when it comes up textually at a later point, readers will already know what the heck I'm talking about.
As a totally random example, of course.
Item 4 on the list o' Big Changes is one of these, where I'm going to have to pepper the ms with individual sentences separated by whole chapters, and on top of the intense chapter editing I did today, I made the executive decision to hold it for tomorrow.
I also have a short story deadline coming up that I'm totally unprepared for, but I'm in Skywatch mode right now, so . . . I may continue to be totally unprepared for it. Oh, well. Such is life.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-05 03:13 pm (UTC)Luck with the rest of your revisions! It sounds like you're getting pretty darned close to finished...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-05 08:37 pm (UTC)So, mostly esoteric motivation-related reasons. ;)
Nothing to do with market target book length or anything business-related like that. If my final is under 50k I won't weep, but I will be vastly annoyed if the damn draft doesn't hit 50k at some point.
Pretty darned close indeed! I have one more reader and presumably a draft after that (and if you have time this summer . . . please?), but then I think it shall be on to the agent hunt part of the proceedings. And I should take a month or so to outline the next book in the series, so my query letter can legitimately say "with a completed outline for a second book" or something similar. I'd rather sell all three, or even the first two, than just one.