And here I am, back editing Selkie again. Sigh. The real sad thing about this is that every comment I got in the initial feedback resonated(global issues that were big enough to warrant fixing before a full crit). I had noticed almost every one of these things, at least in the back of my mind, and did nothing to heal them. Well, I never thought I had become so good at editing my own that I’d grown beyond critters, so I don’t know why I am surprised :).
Anyway, I’ve started yet another edit pass to address these global issues. Some require little tweaks scattered throughout the novel, some require cuts, some require whole new scenes. That under 120k count I was so glad of (though I’d have preferred 110k)? It’s out the window for this run at least. I know, from my short story experiences, that I have it in me to cut by a fifth or more on sentence level so if length is a huge issue, I can manage it somehow.
On the other hand, the power in this book is the voice and cutting the sentence level may flatten that out. See, a worrier. I need to get through the globals for this pass first then get feedback on the specifics. Who knows…I may discover whole scenes I can toss, or at least trim fiercely. I can hope, can’t I?
And stats:
Edited Today: 4734 words
2 Chapters complete – 4% of the novel
47 Chapters remain
114135 Remaining word count
4734 Current Total
Ouch. I know I’m just getting started, but 4%? It seems like I have such a long way to go.
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4% is a great start, don’t let the numbers get in your way. 4 is almost half of ten, and that’s 1/10 of a hundred. Hehehe. See, you’re almost there.
— Dawn
And thus you prove how statistics have no meaning when manipulated by an expert.
In reality, I look at how many chapters I have to get done, and how many days I have free through the rest of the summer, and I tremble :).
But the most important thing is that this edit has started to click. I’m ENJOYING editing it :).