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Angela Korra'ti

Valor of the Healer

Day 6: My estimates may be off!

So I started into more of Chapter 22 tonight, only to discover that actually, re-reading it, I’m pretty happy with the bulk of it. I’ve only succeeded in taking out another 110 or so words tonight.

I therefore went on through Chapter 23 and Chapter 24, and came to much the same conclusion. I’m really rather lacking on too many extraneous words in these chapters. I’m going to make another pass through both of them over the next few nights, but it’s seeming like I may be closer to the end of this draft than I thought. I may not quite hit the 20K, but if I can pull the total word count down under 120K, I think I’ll be happy with that.

Stay tuned for further details. I’ll post an actual number update tomorrow night.

June 30, 2009 by
Valor of the Healer

Editing, Day 5: This is pretty good

Chapter 22 edits are now underway, and I’ve taken out nearly 170 words. Very close to dipping down under the 120K mark, which is a nice milestone to have so near. I’m pretty sure I won’t need to do anything but word count reduction here–and I’m thinking that the whole sequence where Faanshi, Julian, and the elves break into the abbey can be tightened significantly. Don’t know if I’ll be able to hit a full K out of this chapter, but I’ll give it a college try.

Stopping reasonably early tonight though on account of trying to get caught up on sleep. Better for the writing braincells thattaway.

Edited tonight: -168
Chapter 22 revised total: 5,156
Lament of the Dove revised total (fourth draft): 120,960

June 29, 2009 by
Book Log

Book Log #43: The Patriot Witch, by C.C. Finlay

The Patriot Witch, first installment of ‘s Traitor to the Crown series, sets up the story of young Proctor Brown, who’s inherited the ability to scry from his mother. His only wish is to marry his sweetheart and prove himself to her father by making a fortune on his farm… except that the stirrings of rebellion are beginning in the countryside, and Proctor’s sympathies are with the local militia with whom he’s enlisted. When he encounters a British officer carrying a powerful protection charm, he’s set onto a path that leads him deeper not only into the brewing revolution, but also into understanding his own power.

All in all this was a fine little tale. Proctor’s an engaging young hero, and Deborah, the girl he eventually meets after his initial sweetheart abandons him, is his equal in spirit and his superior in magic. Some interesting threads are laid down about the greater role that magic plays in this version of the history of the American colonies; I’m quite intrigued to see where this will be going.

If anything my only beef at all with the book was that it felt a little too light. But that’s okay for the first book of a series, with Proctor as young as he is. It’ll be fun to see how Books 2 and 3 progress. Four stars.

June 29, 2009 by
Valor of the Healer

Edit-a-thon Day 4: Winner is me!

I have successfully beaten 1,000 words out of Chapter 21! And man, this entire chapter was an exercise in asking myself really difficult questions about whether many sentences if not entire paragraphs really, really needed to be there.

I think I’ll call it a wrap on this chapter then, and move on to Chapter 22 tomorrow night. By my running tally I need to kill about another 4,600 words but I’ll be happy with a rough estimate of 4K.

Three chapters to go and the epilogue. I’m getting there.

Edited tonight: -91
Chapter 21 revised total: 5,891
Lament of the Dove revised total (fourth draft): 121,128

June 28, 2009 by
Valor of the Healer

Yet more editing: Day 3

Yeah yeah yeah I know, technically this is supposed to be Day 4. But had a birthday dinner last night, and by the time I got home I was too full of tasty food and b00zah0l to muster enough brain for editing, what can I say?

So I edited today instead, and succeeded in beating Chapter 21 down under 6,000 words. I’ve killed about 900 words in it all told, and could probably stand to kill another hundred to be on track with the goal of reading 117K by the end of the book. I will therefore see if I can kill another hundred in it tomorrow before I move on to Chapter 22!

Edited today and tonight: -242
Chapter 21 revised total: 5,982
Lament of the Dove revised total (fourth draft): 121,219

June 28, 2009 by
Book Log

Bosoms a-heave at Third Place Books tomorrow!

As y’all know, I am a longstanding fan of the fine ladies at Smart Bitches, and thus, I was delighted to finally finish reading their shiny new book Beyond Heaving Bosoms. Which is by the way totally worth reading, not only for their very own brand of Smart Bitch humor, but also for the intelligent things they have to say it in about the development of the modern romance genre. I will of course have a more formal review post coming.

But this post is more about the fact that Smart Bitch Candy Tan is going to be at Third Place Books tomorrow night! I will be popping down there to hopefully get my copy of the book signed. So if any of you local folks might also be there, keep an eye out for me!

June 26, 2009 by
Valor of the Healer

Edit-a-thon, Day 2

I think last night’s estimate was about right: turns out I killed 260 words out of Chapter 21 tonight. The page count is down to 26, but the 26th page is really only half a page, and with judicious pruning I might be able to kill the rest of that page too. We’ll see tomorrow night.

In addition to just general verbiage reduction, I found at least a couple more places where I could eliminate sentences that were not absolutely critical to the action. It’ll be amusing to me at some point to compare my style in the first draft of this thing with my style in the fourth.

Edited tonight: -260
Chapter 21 revised total: 6,224
Lament of the Dove revised total (fourth draft): 121,461

June 25, 2009 by