Me: Ugh. I’ve reached a chapter that has four decisions in it. Four!
Arkem: Are they yes/no decisions? Because I could help.
Me: Somehow I don’t think your help would be properly informed.
Arkem: That’s never stopped me before.
I’m up to the point in this draft where it’s all about making the hard calls. Over the course of the editing process I mark up a lot of things to fix, or think about, or get a second opinion on, but by this point the only ones that are left are the ones I’ve been avoiding.
This is generally either because I’m conflicted or because I’m lazy. Actually, that’s often the same thing. I’m conflicted because I’m lazy. The text is marked up because I have some kind of problem with it but I’ve been telling myself that I’m being overly judgemental and it’s fine because I don’t want to deal with it.
The easy solution with all these parts is simply to cut them. But if I haven’t done that yet it’s because there’s something in there that I want to keep. Some point it’s making that I’m not prepared to sacrifice.
But now I’m down to the line, so it’s fucking fix it or take the plunge and hit the delete button. In reality this results in me squirming on my couch before reluctantly pulling out a scalpel, or in me ripping the text down to the ground and writing it back up again. Both of which are disproportionately time-consuming so getting through was meant to be a quick final spin through is taking forever.
If you hear a distant grinding sound that’s just my teeth…
Kandace Mavrick
Paul McLaughlan
platform thing 
D. James Fortescue
24/07/2013
What part of the story are the ‘to cut or not to cut’ portions in? Action scenes, character development…
Kandace Mavrick
25/07/2013
I find them all over the book. Less often in dialogue, probably, but otherwise there’s not any particular area I have more problems with than any other. At this sort of point it’s mostly individual lines of text that feel awkward for some reason. They’re saying something but I’m not sure it’s clear or I think they’re belabouring the point or they’re repeating words or phrases too close to other parts in a way I’m not comfortable with. Sometimes it’s because I’ve written a line two different ways and I need to decide which I prefer. Or because punctuating a section differently, or shifting the tense slightly alters the meaning and I have to make final call about what I want to be saying.