Thursday, July 8, 2010

Editing doesn't count

Over the long weekend I opened up Bell-Men and hacked and slashed my way through it line by line. I managed to cut 6,000 words--my goal--without taking out more than a few dozen from any one passage. All the words I cut were completely unnecessary. Now the book is much trimmer at a bit under 118,000 words by MS Word's count (OpenOffice always gives me a higher count; it thinks the book is 120,000 words). I've given up on agents for this one and have sent queries out to three publishers. Onward and upward.

I haven't written much lately. Occasionally I open up Adventures in Zoology or The Trickster Society and tap out a few words, but nothing substantial. I think both projects are a lot of fun, though. I intend to finish both before the year is out. I suspect neither of them will ever sell--AinZ is about a 40-year-old zoologist who's chosen to go on a trip to fantasyland; Trickster Society is about a troll woman (yes, seriously) who...well, never mind, since there's not a single agent or publisher in the world who will get any further than that upon reading the query.

I'm getting fed up with myself for not finishing anything yet this year. Editing doesn't count. Editing is fun and easy. I think I am going to do NaNo this year, but only to see how many projects I can finish during the month.

Also, I'm thinking of taking up fencing. Really. I have an aunt who used to fence; next time I see her, I'm going to ask for a few lessons in basic footwork. Because she's my aunt and loves me, she won't look at my fat, bruised legs and say, "You're not shaped like an athlete and you're clumsy as hell." At least, I hope she won't.

12 comments:

Danielle Birch said...

I'm the opposite - I always think editing counts because it isn't fun and easy :)

I'll be signing up for NaNo this year.

K.C. Shaw said...

I like editing because I'm mostly just rearranging/cutting words I've already written. The writing part is the hardest for me.

Cate Gardner said...

I've found family members are the ones most likely to tell me my thighs are too fat, but that's usually after I've told them there nose is too big. :D

K.C. Shaw said...

I'll be sure to keep remarks about my aunt's nose to myself until after the first fencing lesson. :)

Aaron Polson said...

Editing totally counts. C'mon!

I find what I do in editing spills over into what I do when I write. It's part of the process. ;)

(top ten word verifications: warchic)

Jamie Eyberg said...

Editing is the worst for me so it counts for sure. My old college roommate took up fencing but went into saber fighting because it was more brutal. You should have seen the bruises he came home with. Ouch.

Anonymous said...

Editing is fun and easy?! I have glimpsed your world and it is MADNESS! Editing makes me weep noisy tears of grief.

I had a fencing scene in a play once. I was absolutely terrible but it was a LOT of fun. Let us know how it goes!

-Mercedes

K.C. Shaw said...

Aaron--warchic, that's totally me. :)

Jamie--I'm one of those 'yelp, duck, and run' girls who doesn't like the possibility of getting hurt, so I probably won't be much good at fencing. But it'll be a great excuse to buy a sword!

Mercedes--Once the words are already on the paper, editing is just rearranging them! Or taking them out, usually, in my case.

Fox Lee said...

Editing must count for something - it's far too exhausting not to!

K.C. Shaw said...

Well, maybe it counts a little. But I always feel like I'm avoiding writing when I'm editing.

Jamie Eyberg said...

That's funny. I always start writing to avoid editing.

K.C. Shaw said...

I'm not sure if that's better or worse. Probably better.