Weight loss goal: 16,000 words
Words lost: 4,000
Status: on track!
Good progress this last week. I got a head start by purging my new Chapter 1. I had a suspicion I didn’t need it and The Scribblerati confirmed it. That got me 1,500. From there it was a lot of hard work. Those other 2,500 words came from the next five chapters. A word here, a few words there. Lots of restructuring but not much wholesale cutting.
Lots of work ahead.
Think slim!
It wasn’t that long ago that I was blogging about how even though my book was 132,000 words, that’s how big it needed to be to tell the story.
Then somewhere around the last half to third of my previous draft, I started noticing a lot of chaff amongst the wheat, and then I started getting good at weeding it out. By the end of my last draft it was down to 116K. That’s still long, even for epic fantasy, but it proved to me that my book wasn’t big boned, it was just plain fat!
So that’s the main focus on this final pass. I’m putting my book on a strict diet that – I hope – will slim my word count down to under 100K.
It’s going well so far. I’m on chapter 3 and I’ve cut out over 1000 already.
I think there’s a chance that To Kill the Goddess just might fit into her skinny jeans!
I’m blogging over at The Scribblerati today.
Check out A Crisis of Gagh.
Preview:
Those of you who are loyal readers of this blog know things have been a little angst-ish around here lately. Jon’s deep into the middle of his first draft and Lisa’s contemplating both the end of one journey and the possible beginning of another. As for me, I just finished my latest draft. You would think I would be pretty stoked about that, but I’m not. I’m going to keep the angst train alive, kids, at least for a little while.
So what’s my problem? I’m worried it’s still not ready.
So I’m in the middle of a nearly complete rewrite for Chapter 35. I hadn’t intended on that but once I got in I realized that I had to do things differently. So I’m keeping maybe 25% and redoing the rest.
And it’s really hard!
Why? Because it’s the Big Fight! The whole thing is one big roller coaster battle with 5 characters all throwing down at the same time and it’s insane! Truly, I never could have wrote this a couple of years ago – not so that it made sense – but I’m hammering it out and I think it’s going to be awesome.
Cross your fingers!
In other news…
The Avengers is frakking amazing. It’s so funny and so good that I want to marry it! Well, maybe not marry it. Don’t want the Lovely Leann to get jealous.
Maybe I’ll just spoon it a little.
———-
So all that you just read? I wrote that sometime last week and saved it as a draft and completely forgot about it. LAME.
But in the meantime, I finished it. Not just the fight, but the whole thing. I still have one more editing pass, but I think I’m done.
More about that soon. Like, tomorrow – ish.
I’m almost done.
And, yes, I’ve been here before.
And, yes, just like the Red Squadron leader Garven Dries (thank you, Wookieepedia) my previous efforts have fallen short, impacted on the surface, if you will.
But this time I’ve got a good feeling. Everything feels right. It’s slimmer, trimmer, focused – it’s going to slide down that thermal exhaust port and explode into brilliant awesomeness.
So how close am I? Four chapters, all of which just need some editing. That’s “You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!” close. And that’s pretty amazing considering how sick I’ve been these last few weeks.
Jedi focus, my friends. Jedi focus.
But now for the big question: is To Kill the Goddess done done? Not quite. There’s still one more quick editing pass and I’m running the new material past the Scribblerati, just to be safe, and then it WILL be done done. Thank the Goddess!
So I’m still sick. It’s a sinus infection, or so says the nice guy at the Target Clinic. Now I have antibiotics and – since I had very nearly coughed up a lung – cough suppressant with codeine.
Now, I haven’t had antibiotics in years, and it’s been even longer for codeine. Codeine doesn’t mess around. 10 minutes after taking that and it was like being in that really drunk and floaty place, only without the slurring and embarrassing tendency to talk at everyone about everything as if I were the world’s foremost expert. Not that it’s ever happened to me, of course.
All of this means not a lot has happened on the book. *pout*
But in other news, I downloaded the Marvel Comixology app to our tablet and then I bought the new Avengers vs X-Men Infinite comic. I had seen the press and while it sounded interesting I was skeptical because the Marvel comics people tend say every new thing is the best ever and they usually aren’t.
Take for instance the digital comics they’ve done in the past. They (at least the one I saw) were this weird mix of still print and motion which didn’t work as either a comic or a cartoon. Very meh.
But this Infinite Comic? This is the future of comics. I shit you not. Maybe it was the codeine, but this was powerful. Emotional. It drew me into the story in a manner that print rarely does. I think a big reason was the pacing. You see what they want you to see when they want you to see it. There were other things too, things that are hard to explain here but when you see them you’re like, “Yes! This is how comics are supposed to be!
So cool.
Now where’s that cough syrup?
Yes, you heard it here friends. Chapter 29 is officially demon spawn.
I think Jon put it best when he said in his critique, “Well done. However, it was definitely not as polished…”
UNDERSTATEMENT!
So yah, it sucked, and it has been sucking up my time as well. But it’s done! I have edited out just over 1300 words, knocking it down to by two whole single spaced pages. Good thing too, because I was just about to start looking for a banishment spell.
And in other news, I’ve made two good passes on chapter 34, a brand new chapter that all the other new material made necessary. That leaves me with just one newish chapter to write, along with 5(?) more to edit.
PS my allergies are completely kicking my ass. Sympathy please! 
