I am now staring at a very large manuscript, that needs some serious editing to ensure that it is both the right length for my genre and it is not a crime to literature. This is so much easier said than done. Nobody warned me about this bit. I am trying to follow Roz Morris’ Beat Sheet method where you start off by summarising each chapter without actually changing anything. This is a great idea, but it's proving too hard for me. As I read it I keep having little light bulbs and alarm bells triggered that need immediate attention. Instead of my aim to reduce the word count, I keep spotting things that should be ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ and blinding omissions where I need to add an explanation, otherwise the reader will be lost. So in short my editing is resulting in a higher word count. Argh!
I’m sure it will get easier, and I will persevere as my wonderful group of readers are patiently waiting for a readable draft, and they deserve the best I can produce, as they may be the only people that ever read it!