Editing Mode

Since coming back to full-time writing status I've taken it upon myself to start editing the manuscript for the practical purpose of editing (obviously) and as a way to re-familiarize myself with the story. There were some finer points I had forgotten about, and even found one small plot hole that I was able to fix easily.

Then a fellow writer friend mentioned to me all the occurrences of "s/he could feel" and after doing a search I found more than a dozen of those exact phrases. So I corrected them... Then I wondered what other things I should be looking for and found one common word that is overused in a manuscript is "s/he said". So I did another search for "said" throughout the manuscript... Oh boy... 134 instances. Not all of them were awful but most of them were. I actually taped a piece of paper on the wall with dozens of synonyms for "said" and referenced that for all 134 instances of "said". It took quite a few hours.

I guess this is the part of writing that is the least fun. It's great knowing that the manuscript will be more polished and less amateur once it is published, but the sheer amount of work is daunting at best. I've got my work cut out for me.

Benedict Cumberbatch has the best name in the world and reads a book

Please be the narrator of my internal monologue, Benedict Cumberbatch.

Return to Writing

I took about 3 weeks off for finals and a little post-term laziness but now it's back to writing and finishing "Zoe Thanatos". My mind feels refreshed but now I'm tempted to go on an editing spree rather than just finishing up and then editing. What to do, what to do!