Editing hours: 27.7 | Since last entry: 4.6 | Percent complete: 44% Today’s retreat was incomplete; we did some grocery shopping and went to a movie (Robots, it was silly and fun) and cooked some stuff for tomorrow’s Easter brunch. The editing felt a bit incomplete, too. I find myself extremely daunted by my large list of things-to-do. As I look at each item and read over the chapter, it becomes easier and easier to say “well, it’s not perfect, but it would be too much work to change it.” I did make some changes. One biggie was right at the beginning of the day, when I woke up thinking about the Jason jealousy problem mentioned yesterday. I wound up cutting almost all of that scene, and what was left I turned around so that Flea was jealous of Jason. This solution leaves the tension between them but strengthens Jason as a character, and I’m surprised I didn’t think of it before. It also cut about 300 words, which is a good thing. Most of the rest of the changes I made today were small, sentence and paragraph level, mostly informational rather than emotional. I’m finding it very very hard to make substantial changes. I think I’m getting ready to let go of this novel. I’m certainly heartily sick of editing. More tomorrow, though.
About David
David D. Levine is the author of Andre Norton Nebula Award winning novel Arabella of Mars, sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus and Arabella the Traitor of Mars, and over fifty SF and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic.
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