Hack and slash

I’ve finally done it! After a medal-worthy marathon of procrastination, I finally sat down last night and started editing my novel. And it was fun. Take that, hideous opening sentence! In fact, goodbye whole boring first two pages. The first scene, which wasn’t particularly long, lost 1,000 words in a frenzy of hack and slash. Could be a problem if I keep that up, since I need to add about 20,000 words to the total length. I could end up with a short story instead of a novel.

Still, I’m pleased that I’m moving again. I finished the first draft two months ago and have been stalling ever since. My new goal is to finish the book before November rolls around and I start NaNoWriMo and do it all again. In fact, I’d better finish a couple of weeks before, to give me time to think about my NaNo project …

Guess I’d better go do some revising.

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3 Responses to Hack and slash

  1. Tabitha says:

    Good for you for sitting down to revise! Once you make yourself sit, it’s amazing how much your novel improves, isn’t it? Such a good feeling. 🙂

  2. Pema says:

    All writers hit a point when editing feels like a drag, but on other days, writing can be wonderfully satisfying and invigorating – one feels proud of their work, one can relate to their characters…

    And all writers live for those moments. That’s why writers keep writing.

  3. Marina says:

    Tabitha — I hope it’s improving! Some of the first part was so bad it would be a real struggle to make it worse.

    Pema — definitely invigorating so far. I’m really enjoying putting the red pen through the crap. I just hope it’s still as much fun when I get to the parts that require big slabs of new material.