Muaha. I am encouraged by commenters to continue this play by play editing process.
I don’t even know *what* today’s goal is. Reaching page 500 seems like an extremely lofty one, given that 2 days of this has gotten me to page 275original/250new. On the other hand, I’ve passed the “I can really take big chunks out” stage, so this might go faster. Or it might go more slowly, because to cut I’m going to have to be very persnikity. I guess I’ll see.
Chapter 11
This is the chapter where I always figure things will go wrong, if they’re going to. As it happens, they haven’t gone wrong in the original chapter, so I don’t think they’re going to in the revisions. :)
page 250: mammalian assitance renders the physical manuscript difficult to see, but otoh, KITTY IS WARM and the Irish don’t insulate their damned houses, so even with the heat on I’m freezing. I can work around the cat if it means leeching his body heat.
Gah. Nearly an hour’s worth of work to cut one page. This might go more slowly than quickly after all. V. sad.
Chapter 12:
Hey, another page cut in a mere twenty minutes! Detail work again (still), but I’m good with that.
Oop. Tipped over onto that page again. I’ll excise it yet, I will! One sentence cannot defeat me!
Ahahah! I am mighty! The deletion of two words (“of course”, which, along with “indeed” and “in fact”, while I love the rhythm of them, are wasteful words and I have been cutting most of them out) hath given me my page back! Can I whack another one? Stay tuned for more exciting edits!
page 287: Oop. Added a paragraph and tipped over to the next page again. Darn. But the paragraph’s necessary….
page 289: The page disappeared again. This is sort of weird. :)
page 293: Well, I ended up a page down in that chapter, anyway. I’ll take it. And now it’s lunch time, I think…
Chapter 13
Oh, there’s no chance I’ll cut a page out of this chapter. It’s dense-packed as it is.
! I’m wrong! A word here and a word there took a page out! Woot! Ah, because the last page of it was fewer than ten lines, but still, every bit I can shave off is a win.
Aaah, this chapter. There is a character who is barely introduced in this book, a character who’ll be significant in the later books (assuming there are later books, she said nervously) who may be my favorite character ever, for all that I’ve barely written him. He’s got moments here and there in this book, and aaah, I love to come across him. :)
Chapter 14
p 318 new/345 old: Another 30 pages puts me at the halfway point of the manuscript. I’m growing increasingly certain I’ll need to print this out again once this revision pass is done (and I’ll do so in a different font and linespacing,
Oh dear. This is another chapter where I don’t think I can take more than a few words out, and that won’t shift the pagecount any. Man, this is a *dense* chapter. So. Much. Happening.
*squints* I think I gained a page. Oops.
page 333: DELETE DELETE DELETE
Figured out a way to *seriously* strengthen a weak plot thread. I stop now to go back several hundred pages and make adjustments. *fiddle fiddle fiddle*
Mrgl. Ok. One section fixed. *finds the next*
…all…right. *squints* Those are the two places in the ms that I know this is referenced previous to this point. I’m *definitely* going to have to print this out, though.
Mrgl, twice. If I can get to the end of this chapter today, I think I’ll call it a win.
p 338: oot! cut a page!
Mrgl a third time. Ok, I’m going to call this good, because in order to be supported by the stuff I’ve rewritten, the next chapter needs some fairly significant modification, and probably the end of the day is not the *best* time to do that. I’ll start fresh tomorrow.
Stats for the day: I seem to have cut a pathetic one page out of the 95 I went through today. That’s kind of lame. Still, I’m halfway through the book now. I’m going to have to pick up the pace, though, if I want to get it turned in early enough to make my editor think I’m a genius.