I was going to post about the editing process for my Chinese Whisperings story. Versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. differentiate themselves with increasingly kaleidoscopic overlays of editor Jodi Cleghorn's additions, deletions, comments and notes, then my responding additions, deletions, comments and notes, all in various shades of red & blue. I had screenshots and everything.
Alas, when I composed the blog post, although the text in the screenshots was very blurry, you could just barely make out what it said. So, in the interests of keeping things secret until the book comes out later this year, no screenshots.
However, I will say that my first draft was 5000 words, which I cut to 4800, then to 4300. That's what I sent to Jodi. Notwithstanding the fact that she felt my text was "tight" and the dialogue "mesmerizing" (ahem: woot.), Jodi cut it to 4100, with suggestions for more cuts and a target of 3650. I'm now at 3747 and will try to shave off another 100 before returning it to Jodi.
As promised, it's not just dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. Somebody vomits, too.
UPDATE: Finished the cuts and edits, ending this round at 3636 words. Go me! What a remarkably kick-ass story this is!
throw up! it's got throw up!
ReplyDeleteexciting
It has alcohol, drugs, cell phones and a 14K gold pen, too.
ReplyDelete8-)
Tony your story was one of the hardest stories I've had the pleasure of editing - because there was very little 'fat' to trim out of it. The story WAS tight - it hung together with an ease and solidity which didn't give a whole lot of wriggle room for an editor.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are an editor who loves dialogue - it is hard to take the beautiful razorblade to dialogue which flows so easily off the page. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to shave ANY out of it - hurrah for that middle section is all I can say!
I'm glad that you've found this a positive experience and that my name is not prefaced with large four letter words.
And can I go on record to say - I was impressed with a 24 hour turn around on a rewrite that cut another 500 words from the text. That is phenomenal. You are setting the bar high. You will become the maligned Apu of the CW team - lol!
PS: return comments when my head stops throbbing.
Jodi: Tony your story was one of the hardest stories I've had the pleasure of editing - because there was very little 'fat' to trim out of it. The story WAS tight - it hung together with an ease and solidity which didn't give a whole lot of wriggle room for an editor.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many ways a writer can make his editor's job difficult. I'm delighted that this particular difficulty was facing us both!
No, I'm not reaching for any four letter words, other than WOOT. The fact is that, as good as the story was at 4300, it needed to be 3650. That was a fundamental challenge to me, since I wrote in the pacing and build-up with the longer piece in mind. However, if the lasagna is too big for the plate, you can't have all the lasagna, no matter how good it tastes.
Shaving it down necessarily changed the feel of it. How could it do otherwise? Rest assured, I liked it the way it was, but I like it more the way it is now.
I'll admit that I mourn the loss of some of the darlings I killed. I always prefer to build more slowly than my word count limits allow. Depending on your preferred metaphor, this is because a) if you rush the telling of a joke, you blow the punchline, b) the most successful seductions are the ones that stroll rather than sprint to the bedroom, and c) the barbs that slip in slowly, bit by bit, are the ones that cause the most pain which you finally twist them.
That's why I enjoy writing flash fiction. It forces me to curb my natural prolixity and stick to 1000 words. Now, if I could only attain that same level of self discipline in my longer-form writing!