Post-NaNo Update: Chip, Chip, Chip

~ crossovercreativechaos

Currently seem to be averaging about 10 words cut per page of Seeds of Blood. Doesn’t sound like a lot, I know, but I’ve already been through two rounds of edits on the draft. Which means that hopefully this is cutting the last of the unnecessary, redundant, or just plain distracting words out of the text. If the first two rounds were more pickaxe and shovel, this is more like going at the draft with an archaeologist’s trowel, trying to get at the exact shape of the sentences, no more or less.

Once all the “dust” of redundant words is gone, then I can look more at the imagery and scene-setting. Because then I’ll be able to see exactly what is and isn’t there for the reader to chew on. Trying to polish up scenes and description while extra words and awkward phrases are hanging around in the text feels like trying to pin a dress on a goat. The results aren’t pretty, and the goat doesn’t like it.

…Yes, I do know that from personal experience. I never had formal 4-H in my life, but I have some knowledge of taking care of a wide variety of barnyard critters. I can’t swear to all goats, I never dealt with Saanens, for one – but Nubians don’t do cosplay.

(I have mercifully blotted out why anyone tried in the first place.)

So. Currently about… 1/7th through this draft, roughly. ATM my plan is to keep flicking at the text all the way through, then go back through again to do all the extra scene-setting and foreshadowing. And then see how it looks. It might need yet another draft after that; I’ll have to see when I get there.

Then it’s format, get cover art, wrestle with CreateSpace. Eep.

Piece of advice for anyone else intimidated by the whole self-publishing mountain: make a checklist! Then you have down all the steps you eventually need to get done, but you can focus on the one right at hand. Breaking the Huge Pile Of Things into smaller bits lets you keep hitting it with persistence, instead of relying on one heroic surge of energy and Getting it Right. Persistence, I’ve got. Heroic energy, not so much. 😉

 

12 thoughts on “Post-NaNo Update: Chip, Chip, Chip”

  2. Mmm yes. Lists are a wonderful tool for large projects.

    And if one finishes the list and despairs at the amount of work to do? Add one more item, to wit, “make a list” and then cross it off as your first accomplishment. ^_^

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  3. have you tried using a text to speech program to help with your editing?

    it really helps me to hear it spoken out loud by something that is incapable of skimming over text

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      1. I’m dyslexic so I use text to speech programs a lot. it takes a lot less time for me to spellcheck with a text to speech program since you can usually hear if it sounds wrong.

        I seriously hate the English word for dyslexia. i’m Danish, the Danish word for dyslexia is “ordblind” it’s literal translation is wordblind.

        you can’t even spell the English word and have to look it up in a dictionary to figure out what it means. — i just run the Danish word through google translate when i have to spell it.

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      2. *Blinks* “dys” + “lexia” = a dysfunction in reading…. Ah yes. “English is weird” strikes again. *Wry G* There are so many Latin and Greek roots scattered around in my native tongue, not to mention Celtic, German, and words lifted wholesale out of just about every spot in the Pacific, I have to admit to being bewildered when I look at other languages’ dictionaries. Doesn’t everybody break down their words by “and this came from X word by way of these three different versions of the language….”

        And don’t ask me to explain why flammable and inflammable both mean “will catch on fire”. You’d think one of those would be wrong!

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      4. I just put in a comment under …not my screen name… about inflammable vs flammable that says it’s in moderation.

        Can you delete it before it goes up?

        Sorry for the inconvenience

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