Effulgent Corruption - Planned Editing and the end of Part 2

on Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Part 2 is finally winding down. I'd wager I could finish it tonight, assuming I'm not completely burned out from work and piano lessons. The last final scenes are set in motion, and then we will move to the third viewpoint.
The novel is teetering around 120k currently, but I already have plans for serious editing. So my writing group feels like they are being heard, here's a list of potential cuts from Part 1 already:

- Minimizing Drake's thoughts. They decrease substantially after he arrives at the Maw (literally the chapter after what writing group is currently on), but the number before is still too long, and there are still pieces interspersed that slow it down. My belief is that I was too concerned with writing a character I didn't know enough about, or rather I had an idea for him but didn't know how to present it besides beating it into the reader's head. It'll be fixed.
- Cutting down exposition. There's lots of yammering; most of it works, but most is unnecessary. I also need to find a balance (based on feedback) on what needs to be explained and what can be passed on until later parts.
- Make Drake less dumb. Again, not certain of his character during the original write, but he should know much more than he currently does. That's going to require some serious edits, but it should also cut down on the exposition.
- Explain Drake's "crime." I realized too late that I never mentioned that Drake can't remember his trial or crime that condemned him. So that is just an open question that I never address, which is bad.
- Overall editing/cuts. Lots of filler can be trimmed, especially in the first five chapters. This is the usual content edit.

I also have some reworkings for Part 2, based on my wife's comments (since nobody else has read it yet).
-Changing the focus/goals of the main lead. All are resolved, but due to the way it is presented something that isn't as important is thought to be MORE important. It needs to be played down, and the other instances played up.
- Cut an entire scene. When I was writing this scene, I was thinking "I'm going to cut this; why am I writing it?" Probably cutting it, or at least trimming it down substantially.

I'm excited for Part 3, and then I'm going to probably do some plotting for both it (since I only have an opening and closing scene, and a general idea of what happens in-between) and the remainder of parts in some attempt to keep this manageable.

Point being: It's been going very well. I've been averaging over 3k a day (except yesterday, where I only had about 1.5k) in some attempt to finish this madness. It is starting to wear on me (especially since the end is still so far off), but I'm still going to try to have it done by May (end of May at the very latest).

I'm also ready for a new project. Steelgods edit is probably next, as I am considering submitting both it and Paradise Seekers to Shadow Mountain. We'll see.

Not much else going on. Still writing, have a job, all that good stuff.

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