My original plan was idealistic. I’d work on revisions of Ghost Inn while concurrently attempting to write something new. Didn’t work. I found that I was only able to concentrate on the revisions, because I really want to get this polished draft finished and off my desk. If that means that an anthology deadline sails on by, so be it. I wasn’t having much luck coming up with a story idea for the next item on my whiteboard checklist anyway.
After accepting this course correction, I edited 150 pages of the manuscript this weekend. Mostly I’m tightening up the writing and fixing the bleary-eyed typos I made during the mad rush of NaNoWriMo. So far I’m pleased with what I’m reading. I found a couple of dangling plot issues (a tertiary character who is invited to show up at an event that takes place later in the book who I never mention again) and some continuity errors (a guy is in room 313, then in room 328). My sheet of story notes is pleasingly short.
I find my most common edit up on revision is to strike out about 85% of the occurrences of the word “that.” When I’m writing, I use “that” a lot. A habitual tic that I can’t seem to rid myself of. I haven’t shortened the manuscript much on this pass. The 10% rule isn’t working for me. I’m over halfway through the 93,000 word manuscript and have eliminated fewer than 1000 words. I’m hoping to get this pass done by the end of the week. By the end of next weekend at worst.
We watched a “comedy” called Art School Confidential last night. The trailer looked amusing and it had John Malkovich and Angelica Houston in the cast, both plusses. It was okay, but not really a comedy and it really got messy and awkward at the end. More than anything else it was a parody of art schools and pompous artists, but the murder mystery subplot went in a funny direction. It had a few chuckle-funny moments, but wasn’t exactly what we were expecting based on the preview.
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