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Lose Some, Win Some

GUYS. OMG GUYS. You'll never guess what happened...

 I finished Edit Round #4 of The Book! 

 And not only that --

I reached my word count goal! WOOO ME!!!!!

 What that actually means: Since late December, I've been editing a 113,591-word novel. My goal was to get it down to 100,000 words. Which I did -- it sits at 100k exactly. I successfully cut 13,591 words.

 Holy shit.

 To be honest, I had some serious doubts at the beginning of this editing process. Most of the words I cut were deleted or changed scenes, unnecessary dialogue tags, redundancies, and 13,591 other little things that really add up. To be brutally honest, it could probably be snipped and slimmed a bit more -- I bet I could take another 1,000 words off. 
If you ever embark on an editing adventure, I recommend you chart your progress with Excel. Every day, I put the date and the word count. Every tab was a different round of edits. When procrastinating, I calculated my average word-cutting rate per day, the differences between days, etc. I have a rather absurd love of graphs and stats and messing with Excel, but even if you're not me, you should do it.

 I also posted here 3 times a week. Yay!

 I also got the fantastic Alyssa of I Am Writer...Hear Me Roar! as a critique partner. Gulp. Giving my writing to someone else makes me really nervous, but I'm sure she'll do a great job. Her blog features very thoughtful and useful posts, and is a lot of fun to read. (Hint, hint *cough*FOLLOW HER*cough)

 As for my other Ready. Set. Write! weekly goals, I didn't meet those. I started, but didn't finish, the outline. I only wrote 2 Examiner reviews. And I did absolutely nothing on any other project.

 At least I partially completed some goals! Also, I have a valid excuse: I was speed-editing a long WIP. I did try to write other things, but it was way too distracting.

 Since I met my 100k goal, however, I get to take a mini-break while Alyssa reads my pages. I get to read her pages (they are great), make notes on them, and possibly pick up a shelved project. I think I'll go back to Contracted or The Other Book. I am definitely guilty of WIP favoritism. Contracted is very fun to write. Lots of horrible people doing mostly horrible things. I think I'll feature it in a post about having unlikeable or problematic main characters. The chick from my zombie novella is annoying as all hell, but she's not problematic like this MC is.

 Happy writing, happy reading. Have a good weekend and may you reach all your goals and beyond.

Comments

  1. UnknownSat Jul 06, 10:21:00 AM CDT

    Congratulations on finishing your fourth round of edits and cutting so many words. That's a HUGE accomplishment!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlyssaSat Jul 06, 01:31:00 PM CDT

    Congrats!! I am so excited to read your pages. (And thanks for the shoutout, by the way).

    Also I want to read your post about unlikeable MCs! Have you ever read The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta? She takes an "unlikeable" character and makes you fall in love with him. She is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LauraSat Jul 06, 03:38:00 PM CDT

      I have not read that book -- I'll keep it in mind. In what way(s) is he unlikeable?

      Delete
    2. AlyssaSun Jul 07, 09:03:00 PM CDT

      Well, he's definitely not the nicest or most caring person in the world... he actually appears as a minor character in Saving Francesca first. I guess it depends what you mean by "unlikeable" though.

      Delete
    3. LauraTue Jul 09, 02:24:00 PM CDT

      Usually if I can understand or empathize with why the character acts the way he does, I don't mind those qualities too much.

      Delete

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