Howdy,
Today is a pretty damn good writing day. I finally completed the Arduous Edit. In my last update, I stated I would look to improve the characterization of the protagonist, consider combining a couple of later chapters, and conduct a full read through. Well, I’ve done two of those things. After careful consideration, I decided I didn’t need to combine those later chapters. I did, however, edit the dialogue in those chapters quite thoroughly. Most importantly, I really pumped up the characterization of the protagonist, especially in the earlier chapters – a significant improvement (hopefully).
While I am calling the Arduous Edit completed, I don’t know that I’m entirely done editing. Lately, I’ve been reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. It contains scads of practical tips for polishing up your fiction. Just the other day, I read through the chapter about beats in dialogue. Essentially, beats, in the context of dialogue, capture what I would call the body language of the characters. This is supposed to add depth to the characterization that comes through during dialogue. Now, I do think my dialogue is excellent, but some of it might benefit from the addition of beats. Anyway, I’m not 100% committing to this additional revision effort yet. Well, I’m probably 95% committed. I’ll probably call this next round of editing the Surgical Edit – for more precise and focused in purpose than what I have done thus far.
First, though, I’ll take a break to put some distance between myself and the manuscript. There’s a synopsis to rewrite and a short story or two to draft.