Short Cuts Aren't

A Mean Rotten Reality Check from your resident Tart.

So some of you may know I had line revisions from my editor... She made some complimentary statements.... great job with character and story... she had some bigger points she wanted me to consider (three of them) that would mean some rewriting, and then edits and comments within the text. Easy enough, ne?

I conquered the edits and comments first... nice to feel like I'm getting somewhere... (a fine strategy).

NONE SHALL PASS

Then I found the big places where the changes would matter and marked the 'where' and wrote them in... then I printed the thing because my brain only works at half-mast when it is back-lighted... or something... and I read the thing through for consistency (because of the changes, right?). *pats self on head*  I fixed a couple timing SNAFUs because editing makes this writing thing CIRCULAR so sometimes you write something in that is a response to something that hasn't happened yet. (surely I am not the only one this happens to)...

Then I get out the email to double check I've covered it... and I see it... “...any sentences that can be slimmed down, and focused on the parts that relate directly to the plot and character development.”

DOH! (see comment about brain half mast with back-lighting)  Slimmed? You KNOW slimming is NOT my strong point! I am an ample, huggable Tart! And sad to say, you are what you write... erm... they say that, right? Whatever the case, I was only 2 days from my self-suggested deadline and I had a BOOK TO SLIM!!! GAH!

So I started plugging away... and Thursday I got through maybe 75 pages (good progress--4 days to done)... and then Friday it POURED so my commuting portion of my editing day got sucked into oblivion (which throws off everything—that is my best time..). and then I did some more on Saturday and got a brainstorm...

Sometimes the long way is the short way...

All those blogs I read... all those tricks...

Temptation dangled so... danglingly... *shifty*


So I did a 'find' for 'ing'--lets lose the passive language!


This is where the Voodoo music starts. (hear it?)

Let me tell you... 'ing' does indeed play a part in some passive text... and I used a little, though MOSTLY when I used it (meaning 'ing' not 'it), it was a second part to a sentence and was providing setting or outcome, and the MAIN part of the sentence had a verb that had PLENTY of cajones ALREADY!

The real problem though, was that I had to carefully read a paragraph every time to orient and decide... this was NOT a time saver.

I try to limit politics, but this was too amusing to pass up

The search for 'that' was better... sure, some of them needed to be there (most of them, even) but it was quick to tell which KIND of 'that' it was and remove the offenders...

But then there was 'just', 'very', 'a little', 'seemed'... No, time to rethink...

After that (<--necessary that) I determined it really IS better to just go through it all... this short cut business was NOT shorter. If I read it ONCE in ORDER I catch ALL the variety of wordiness (plus those full sentences and paragraphs that need dropping)... if I do it piecemeal, I have to go through the bloody thing a dozen times and will still miss some. So that is where I am on the matter... The short cut wasn't. (short, I mean)

So sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The fact of the matter is, you just gotta do the work... If you take short cuts, you are going to do it several times...