Editing is one of the most fun parts of writing a book. Its also one of the hardest.
Why is it fun? Because you get to toy with stuff you’ve already written. Instead of writing new copy, you are bettering what you’ve already written. Sometimes when you go back over certain sentences or paragraphs, you do a double take and ask “Who wrote this shit?”
I’ll admit that those ‘WWTS?’ moments happened a few times already in this first draft of the new Star Brigade book. But, after taking a step back and reviewing the manuscript with a fresh perspective, I’ve been finding ways to make the story more organic and better flowing.
However, here’s what sucks about editing. In essence, a manuscript of any kind is your baby. You conceived it in your head and birthed it through your fingers onto a document (digital or hard copy). And now, in order for it to make more sense or meet the word count parameters set by agents and publishers you have to hack away at said baby.
Kinda sucks, but writers are never objective about their writing. So far, I’ve been mainly shaving off excessive words or sentences. But over the past few chapters, I have started running into those cluster of paragraphs or full pages that while are lovingly written, yet just aren’t necessary.
I had to struggle with a half page yesterday that dealt with a character’s struggle with an elevated benchmark in their powers. But ultimately, it didn’t truly accentuate the larger story. Its a hard choice to make. But at the end of the day, if it doesn’t serve the story as a whole or most important doesn’t prove pivotal to an important character, then its got to go.
Eesh. Anywho, back to the cuting room.
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