February 10, 2011

The Xmas Carol saga

I read the first chapter of Xmas Carol and it sounded fine. Was I still changing things as I read it? Of course; anything can be improved. But the changes I'm making are minor. The last big edit seems to have done the trick.

I plan to read the rest of the book at a leisurely pace. Because of all the editing, I'm painfully familiar with every sentence in the book. This is not helpful when you're trying to get a sense of a novel. If only I could read it cold, but that's impossible. On the other hand, you will get that opportunity. It's weird but I envy my readers because I will never know what it's like to read Xmas Carol, not knowing the story beforehand. I never noticed this before. It seems to be a hidden penalty for authors.

It's been a slog but I'm almost there. Pretty soon I'll write the cover letter and synopsis and send it out. Then my poor little book will be on its own in the world, utterly alone and quite vulnerable. You try to raise them right but you never know how things will turn out for them when they finally leave home. Still, you've got to kick them out sometime.

2 comments:

Anna Guess Pick said...

So you've been messing about with art as well, good job. I like your analogy about having to turn the kids out on their own sooner or later.

Any word from Carmine yet on Xmas Carol or is his copy still waiting to be received?

writenow said...

Thanks! As for Carmine getting the book, I decided to wait until after this reading because I still intend to slash large blocks of text. When I began the edit, the book was 202,000 words and I knew I had to make it much shorter. When I finished the edit, after taking out whole scenes and characters, the book was 202,000 words. The difference between the before and after totals was less than 100 words! Guess I didn't cut the book size down, huh? Thing is, I put more words in as I took them out. Still, I think it moves much more swiftly and easily now. Carmine, it's coming in about a week or so.