Thursday, March 20, 2008

Manuscript reduction

This week I began the revision process to see how much I could trim from my 90K novel. Was there that much dross that I could eliminate? Were there relationships with secondary characters that weren't necessary to a different sub genre?

It was a real high level, major scene slashing and I managed to trim 16k from it on the first pass. I'm sure more will come in the thorough revision process. The problem is that going with the shorter version will bring fewer opportunities to expand the descriptive passages, make use of rhetorical devices and thoroughly explore the characters' emotions.

So this week I'll fine tune the ending and take a look at both versions to see which is stronger. It's bad news when my husband who knows nothing about writing says, "that sounds like too much to cut. Doesn't that mess with the ...flow?" And grand son who is a new author of a fishing manual said, "Nothing like throwing out a little content."

We'll see. Luckily, I have a great critique partner who can help me decide before submitting my first three chapters. I feel the pressure to take advantage of the contacts I made in Shreveport.

Two partials to submit as soon as I can and more post office work looming to work around. This year will be a study in setting boundaries, learning to write around my work schedule to achieve my goal of getting published.

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