The Real Work

You know it's a funny fact of life when you're a writer you go through a lot of ups and downs, joys and pains. When you are writing, you are creating, you are world building, you are developing characters, hoping they will turn into people, not just some random cardboard cut-out that you push around on the page.

After the creating, after the hard but enjoyable effort of crafting a story, you get hit with the REAL work: edits and proofs and sweating bullets. Probably the hardest thing to face is your new baby's flaws. It isn't fun, it isn't easy, but it will make your work 100% better in the long run.

This is where I have been lately. My big book of sexy romps and secret twists and turns must be faced head on and told what it needs to be put through to make it the best story it can be. I often liken this process to trimming the fat. You want to take off the excess fat, but leave enough there to flavor the meat (if you are a meat eater), because if there is too much fat it ruins a good cut, and if there is too little it will be dry and tough.

When this manuscript was put into the proper format for submission, it hit 907 pages. Eek! It also came close to 250K words. Yikes. Now this behemoth is being scrutinized, re-read and edited, trimmed, then gone over again. Honestly, if not for Cain's help on this book, it would not be ready for anyone else to see for another 6 months at least! He is a life saver, and a fair judge of what could be smoothed out or streamlined.

One of the processes we are going through, is reading sections out loud for flow and sense. What sounds awesome in your head can sound like garbled shit on the page. Trust me, I have often written some pretty shitty monkey-speech, Now it's on with the pooper scooper and (crossing fingers!) a tighter, smoother book that is not 900+ pages long!