Bonster

General status:

For the first time ever, I may reach my GYWO monthly word count goal with only editing words? 🤯 Even if I don't, I'm sure I've never been as close.

The facilitator for the workshop had mentioned they recommended retyping your entire draft as part of the structural editing process. Obviously, as someone sane on the surface, I immediately thought "Are you kidding me, who's got the feckin' time?!" and then I remembered the hundreds of hours of editing I tracked for the Cursed Witch, and, yeah. I guess I'm the fecker with the fuckin' time anyway, and only moderately sane to begin with anyway. Might as well put in the hours early in the process, if it helps?

And help it does, for me. Unlike "read your work aloud to proofread" which did not work for me, retyping is turning into an absolute boon (...I think. I suppose I don't have a final result to confirm, yet!) More than tweaking what's there, I notice better ways to say things and rephrase entire paragraphs. Because typing is slightly slower than reading/skimming, I think of connections I can make that I hadn't when I was just rereading ("if he says this instead of that in the narration, then this foreshadows this thing I'll be adding in the new scenes!"). I discover more mini-plot holes ("wait how did she send this notice at night, if the antenna was down?!"). And apparently, I also find entire missing scenes. "He crossed the [place we've said over and over was terrible, dangerous, nobody goes there] and arrived back in the city in the morning" -- and not a single ruin description? OBVIOUSLY he should actually meet some of the dangers we hinted at. And that way I get to not only show the world, but also the character's recklessness. I suspect this is the kind of things I expanded on in the second big round of editing last time, but it's good to do this early because it's easier to piggy-back on some of the changes that way (e.g. what kinda injuries is he hiding now, and who's gonna find out about it?? :D).

Anyway, I continue to make slow but happy progress!! The story is already a third longer, I've added 3 new scenes beyond the 1 that was planned as new from the start... and we still haven't got to the missing middle of the book, where I have like 7 new scenes planned. I have no idea how long this story will be, lol. Still loving it, though :D ♡

Meanwhile, beta-reader feedback for the Cursed Witch is trickling in veeeeryyyyy slowly (most folks warned me they were busy in May!). No structural issues pointed out so far, phew. Obviously, that doesn't mean anything until the complete manuscript is read. (It's still encouraging though, I can't lie XD). Mentally, since sending the drafts out, I've been readying myself for maybe having to crack the story open again if the feedback shows it's necessary, but I do need pointers about any big remaining problems rather than do guesswork. If you ask me "do you think anything is wrong?" of course I can find hundreds of things that could be better or different. Doesn't mean it's worth spending another 200 hours on it because it will never be perfect, no matter what. As usual, I'll be waiting to get all the feedback in from everyone before considering any actions.

Projects:

• Still mainly focused on the Soul Thief
• Also thinking a little bit about my witch :D <3 And the small changes I'm excited to make/clarify...
• Occasionally considering what a shorter project might look like, as a palate cleanser after this chonky round of revisions, buuuuut that's so far ahead and I'm also terrified I'll get super into New Shiny Idea instead, so not thinking about it too hard either