Thank goodness I’m on a real roll with editing my next book; I’m feeling more confident than I have for a long time, confident in it, and confident in the work I’m doing on it, and the fact I can almost see the finishing line.
I’m doing some hardcore editing, slashing out the too many words I don’t seem to help myself writing. I keep thinking ti is such a waste of time to write so much, but when I try to write less my work seems artificial and awkward, mannered and sometimes, gulp, pretentious. Thanks to writing on the computer and not by hand, it’s so easy to go through and check and eliminate words used to frequently. I make a list:
- are not/ had not/have not/ I have/he is etc. – aren’t/hadn’t/haven’t/I’ve/he’s
- That
- Actually
- I have no idea
- Just
- Sort of
- Type of
- A bit of
- Quite
- Felt
- Squeak
- Realise
- Almost
Then ther are parts which don’t make sense or are superfluous – they have to go or be rewritten, or put somewhere else. Because I don’t plan in the way other writers might, my characters often develop as I write them, so I have to go back and check through to make sure they are consistent.
The more I work on it and the closer I get to the end, the easier it is and the more the story comes together and begins to flow. After the depressing anguish of the last year of struggle, it’s particularly gladdening to be really working hard again!
Not long now!
In the meantime, here”s a link to my other Radwinter books:
Lois Elsden 