The Bloodletting is Over
Now it's time to stitch up.
But let me talk about the blood letting for a minute. Because simply marking up a hardcopy of a manuscript is no big deal. It looks bad, because all that red can put you a mindset of actually bleeding something to death (it does to me anyway - I'll stop writing "you"). But then comes the actual cutting from the copy itself. And by that I mean going into the file, highlighting and hitting delete.
A lot of people have a problem with that, and I can understand why. When you've spent so much time putting words on computer screen, crafting sentences and fleshing out characters and so on. But the fact is, sometimes you have to do it. This time around, though, it wasn't so bad. I was able to make the marks on the hard copy, then go in and get rid of it in the file. In the end, I cut over 100 pages of superfluous crap. I cut a character. I cut a plot point. And in the end, the book went from a bloated 462 pages to a too lean 330.
The thing is, the book will bulk up again. Those cuts have to be stitched shut. In some cases, I'm going to have to rewrite scenes. In other cases, I'm going to have to create scenes that are basically connective tissue. And the toughest part of all, I'm going to have to rewrite the Daniel character.
When I come back, I'll have started on that stitching, and I'll let you know how it's going.
But let me talk about the blood letting for a minute. Because simply marking up a hardcopy of a manuscript is no big deal. It looks bad, because all that red can put you a mindset of actually bleeding something to death (it does to me anyway - I'll stop writing "you"). But then comes the actual cutting from the copy itself. And by that I mean going into the file, highlighting and hitting delete.
A lot of people have a problem with that, and I can understand why. When you've spent so much time putting words on computer screen, crafting sentences and fleshing out characters and so on. But the fact is, sometimes you have to do it. This time around, though, it wasn't so bad. I was able to make the marks on the hard copy, then go in and get rid of it in the file. In the end, I cut over 100 pages of superfluous crap. I cut a character. I cut a plot point. And in the end, the book went from a bloated 462 pages to a too lean 330.
The thing is, the book will bulk up again. Those cuts have to be stitched shut. In some cases, I'm going to have to rewrite scenes. In other cases, I'm going to have to create scenes that are basically connective tissue. And the toughest part of all, I'm going to have to rewrite the Daniel character.
When I come back, I'll have started on that stitching, and I'll let you know how it's going.
posted by ctheokas at 10:17 AM
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