Not so easy . . . whether in purdah or out!
Yesterday, I flew through the first 37,000 words, in 8 hours of editing. Finnian had entered the souks of Fahsi and was being seduced by the offerings, not the least of which were the hashish and opium dens. Oh, said self, this is all going so well, I’ll be on the beach in no time.
Huh!
Today is a struggle. Decided I didn’t like the physical structure of some chapters and spent time copying and pasting, to then find I had lost the natural break and flow-on between one chapter and another, so then I had to remedy what I’d done and revert. It’s been a bugger of a job.
Note to self: don’t change what hasn’t been advised by the editor!
Purdah continues, inside so far for 4 hours and CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! Taking self outside to sit half under willows and half-out. Seems even that I can’t decide to do properly. In or out, out or in? Oh well, only a couple of hours till the sun is over the yardarm and I can pour a wine. Things’ll look better then!
I have just rewritten my intro for about the fourth time. I’m finally happy with it. Properly happy. Unfortunately, my rewrite means I now how to change the first chapter too.
I know. It’s a pain! My first chapter must be extended. Without revealing stuff that is revealed later on. They don’t tell you how hard the grind is with editing do they?
All the way through I am trying to remember the advice of Donald Maass, to allow a little more exposition of your main characters on each page . . . the word count with which the editor was happy has now increased by a further 6000 words and I bet I’ll be required to edit it down.
Isn’t this fun?