Love My Deadlines
Posted 26 Oct 2017
editing science fiction
I think I must thrive on anxiety.
Of course, if that were true, my sciatic nerve wouldn't be quite so loud right now, and the panic attacks that have been kicking up more frequently of late might not even be a consideration.
But still, I work best under pressure. Or more consistently under pressure? Whatever.
I have set myself the task of completing the current pass of Salvage in time to send it off to my publisher this Saturday. That's three days to get through another 86,249 words (as of this posting). That's a considerable amount of effort, but glory it'll feel good at the other end of it.
I've got eight pages of notes, from my own previous read-through and from my developmental editor, and now I've got a theme to keep in the back of my head while I work. No dramatic changes so far, just seeding a few concepts I'll need later (thinking of book three a lot, lately, trying to avoid leaving readers with whiplash in a Battle-of-Endor scenario) and tightening up a lot of repetitive details.
You'd think 'tightening up' would make my word count shrink, but as ever, the thing keeps getting longer. It creeps up about 200 words per session. I am not sure how. Yes, in the last two days I've added little moments to two scenes, but dangit, I've also deleted a lot!
Anyhow, work continues. Hopefully my next blog post, in five days, will be an enthusiastic declaration of triumph.
At which point, of course, I will have one day remaining to dig myself a trench in which to spend the Siege of NaNoWriMo. Also, it will be Halloween and I am determined not to feel as though I've missed that holiday entirely.