Slings and Arrows

...Like Hamlet says, "whether to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..."

Fortune here meaning that fickle demon that offers both good and bad.

A new month, new determination.
I finished the re-write over a week ago and as planned, I printed the new draft. Then I stalled out. I made a list of things I want to check for. A couple things are kind of big - like seeking places to expand one of the relationships between characters, or expanding the subplot. Otherwise, I want to read for excessive adverbs, unnecessary dialog tags, find my pet words that I use too much. You know, clean house a bit, verbiage-wise.

I have read - and this being my first book, everything I'm doing is based on things I've read - that it's not a good use of time to edit for nit-picky details before you are totally satisfied with the story. Because what if you make big changes, and then you have to go back and pick for nits again?

But I can't. I tried sitting down with the manuscript and found myself looking for everything all at once. So I stalled.

New month, new determination.

I have determined that my process with this one, at least, will be to read this draft for the details first. I have to. It's how my brain works. It's hard to focus on the big picture when I can't get through a paragraph without a red pen.

I have determined that I will read once for adverbs. Simply marking them with a colored pen, I think.
Then I will read once for dialog tags, using a different color. (Apparently dialog tags are a major issue? I don't think it's a particular problem of mine. That edit should go quickly.)
Then I will grab a highlighter and mark repeated words. I have a short list of ones I caught myself using during the re-write. Maybe I'll find others.

It is entirely possible that I'll find I agree with "them" and that this detail work is too much, too soon, but it's my book, my decision to make.

On to the manuscript!

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