Editing

Since I finished proofreading my manuscript, I'm in the process of editing my Word document with the changes I made to the hard copy. This is the part of the process that's kind of boring, at least, so far. Of course, as I type in my edits and delete the things I cut, I can't help but fidget with what's left.

I'm proud to say that 63 pages into the manuscript I've cut four pages of length. That's without the whole pages that I crossed out a few more chapters into the book. I can't wait to see where I end up, but I plan to go back and read through it at least one more time with an eye on cutting even more.

But, tonight, with a pretty bad headache and exhaustion from a busy week at work -- and a long day of work and errands today -- I'm tempted to lie down on the couch and read for a while. I bought a novel today called "One Day" by David Nicholls that a friend recommended recently. Hmm ... decisions, decisions ... the couch does seem to be calling my name ...

Done Reading ... This Draft Anyway

Phew! I finally made it to the end of my book. Now I'm back in the Word document on my computer making many millions of changes and CUTTING whole sections.

I'm 16 pages in to the printed copy and I've already cut more than a page. Coming up in the next couple of chapters I've got whole pages that are going to go. It's kind of like cutting off my arm, but at least my book will weigh less in the end. It feels like progress.

Of course, no writing project is ever completely done, just done enough for other people to read it, you hope. But as I cut and make corrections and add new sentences that I wrote in the margins of my manuscript, it feels like I'm making the book stronger.

After I'm done entering these edits into my Word file, I'm going to read through the book again to make sure it's coherent after cutting and adding. Then I'll print it again and try to identify my next victim, I mean, reader.

So far, unless they've been reading my blog, my friends and family don't know that I'm writing a book, with the exception of my friend who read it and her husband. I'm not sure why it's such a secret, but I haven't been brave enough yet to talk about what I'm working on. They'll find out sooner or later, I suppose.

For now, it's just a hobby. But, who know? Maybe an agent will want to read it and maybe they'll think a publisher might want to buy it. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

I'm Still Here

I haven't given up on my blog in favor of my book, but I have been so engrossed in reading and editing it that I haven't been writing here.

I'm about three quarters of the way through the manuscript. The only major problem at this point is that I got about two-thirds of the way in and thought, "Yes, this is some of the best stuff! I need to get to this point sooner!"

So, now I'm plowing through to the end so I can start at the beginning again and cut even more than I already have. I am so glad that I had a couple of months off from the story before I started this read-through so that I can look at it with fresh eyes. My plans now are in line with the concerns I had before I handed the manuscript off to a friend to read.

It's been fun to go back and get reacquainted with my characters. I'm laughing and crying in all the same places and thrilled that I still like it. What a relief!

Cutting

I thought it would be painful to cut big chunks out of my book, but having taken fours months or so off from it I can see what's good and what clearly needs to go.

I'm quite proud of myself actually. I've taken a paragraph out here and there and whole pages in one section. Still, the most effective cuts so far have probably come from shortening sentences. I don't know how I thought I could get away with some of the rambling sentences I used to describe the action and the scene in one long-winded breath.

It's all progress, progress, progress, though it is slow. I would like to read at a faster pace, but it's taking a while to get through the story with all of the editing that I'm doing along the way. But halfway through the book, I still like it. That's the best news of all.

I Haven't Forgotten

While I've been fully embroiled in reading my manuscript this week, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about my blog.

Well, OK, maybe I have a little bit, but it's been a tough week. One of those weeks where I come home from work and the last thing I want to do is write. I just want to bury myself in my book.

After four or five months off from, it's been fun to go back and get reacquainted with my characters. I'd forgotten how much fun they were to write. I'm finding that scenes that were funny or sad or sexy to me when I wrote them are still that way to me now ... for the most part.

The more I read, the more I find to cut or rewrite or tone down or play up. Today, I put a big X through almost an entire page. A whole page! For me, that's a lot. I've also run my pencil through two or three paragraphs, easily striking unnecessary dialogue or narrative. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to have to do a second read-through before I make the changes in my computer document to cut whole passages that I left in earlier this week.

So, that's why I've been absent here, because I've been reading and editing. There's only so many hours in a day and I want to say at some point in the not-to-distant future that I'm done with this book. Sure, I wrote it all the way to a conclusion, but it's not done yet. It still needs lots of editing. But, I'm having fun!