Except when you reference that chapter in other parts of the book. I cut my first chapter plus a couple of others and now I have to go back and make sure everything else makes sense, either by adding information or deleting. Lately I’ve been taking a liking to the delete button.
Last night I printed my book out. I had to wait until the kids went to bed because I can’t get anything done while their awake and since there’s no school this week it was very late. Finally at 1:30am and 301 pages later I finally have a copy sitting beside me on my desk. (I have a very slow printer)
I’ve decided there’s only so much editing you can do on the screen and now I need to take a final read through on paper and make the final corrections. One more week to go then I start working on queries. It still seems so far away.
Anyway for everyone in Alberta “Happy Family Day”
For Americans I think it’s President's Day
7 comments:
I call that "trickle down" editing. I actually caught a sentence in the Bad Girls Don't Die ARC that referred to an event that was long gone from the book. Whoops! (At least I caught it.)
There's something about a hard copy that makes it easier to really look at a manuscript. I think (maybe?) because you can't stop reading to try to fix something in the moment... just mark it and move on.
Yea! 301 pages! Were you said when you had to cut chapters? Curse the delete button that mercilessly erases all the time and love you put into those scenes.
Were you sad, not said. Needed the delete button there, I guess.
It was hard to cut them (took me a year to realize it didn't work) but I've put one of them away for a possible prequel to the book. I think it's important to almost detach yourself from the work for a while. so you can be more objective.
It's amazing what a person is willing to cut after you've given your manuscript a little shelf time, isn't it?
I second Holly. A little time away is a really good thing when you go to cut. Everything seems a little more solid after that. :)
I'm excited for your querying! :)
Well congrats on coming to the querying process!
I don't even want to think about all the editing I'm going to have to do...I've changed things in my first draft as I went along and it's probably fairly confusing if I were to go and read through it. But it'll have to be done...
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