Farewell to Selkie...for the time being
Feb. 22nd, 2007 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marfiskAnd you thought this day would never come...or maybe just I did. Early feedback from one critter is that it's not positively awful, but she does agree it's got a unique voice going there. As long as the voice appeals, I think this very odd novel has a real chance in the world. Which of course leads me to worry about what I'll have to offer next if this one is picked up because the others don't have a voice in the way Selkie does. But I'm a chronic worrier. If I didn't worry, I'd rest on my laurels and never get anything done :).
Anyway, ultimately having read this novel twice in the past two months and having picked through every sentence, found continuity errors, corrected illogical passages, culled where I saw culling needed, it still made me cry, made me rail against...myself...as an evil author to put them through some things, and left me with supreme confidence in the novel and no confidence at all. It's very much me. Odd, off the beaten track, and maybe, just maybe, appealing in spite of, or because of, that very nature.
I didn't record the change in word count during the first run through, but in the second, the total difference was 239 words in the negative. Not quite the cut down to 110k that I'd hoped for and my critters may have some suggestions on that front, but if this is the length it needs to be, then by golly I'll find a home for it at this length. What's funny is when I had chapters where I nitpicked my way through, cutting sentences, rewording, adding clarifications, etc. only to find the final word count fell on exactly the same mark as the original. I wanted to cry out that they were different words, but no one was there to listen :).
So, without further ado and no more whining, the final stats for Selkie's first full edit pass:
Edited today: 9242 words
103 scenes complete - 100% of the novel
49 Chapters complete - 100% of the novel
118869 Estimated length - with an average of 1154 words per scene.
118869 Current Total"
Total change in count: -239
P.S. Selkie's real title is My Man from the Sea...unless something better occurs.
Anyway, ultimately having read this novel twice in the past two months and having picked through every sentence, found continuity errors, corrected illogical passages, culled where I saw culling needed, it still made me cry, made me rail against...myself...as an evil author to put them through some things, and left me with supreme confidence in the novel and no confidence at all. It's very much me. Odd, off the beaten track, and maybe, just maybe, appealing in spite of, or because of, that very nature.
I didn't record the change in word count during the first run through, but in the second, the total difference was 239 words in the negative. Not quite the cut down to 110k that I'd hoped for and my critters may have some suggestions on that front, but if this is the length it needs to be, then by golly I'll find a home for it at this length. What's funny is when I had chapters where I nitpicked my way through, cutting sentences, rewording, adding clarifications, etc. only to find the final word count fell on exactly the same mark as the original. I wanted to cry out that they were different words, but no one was there to listen :).
So, without further ado and no more whining, the final stats for Selkie's first full edit pass:
Edited today: 9242 words
103 scenes complete - 100% of the novel
49 Chapters complete - 100% of the novel
118869 Estimated length - with an average of 1154 words per scene.
118869 Current Total"
Total change in count: -239
P.S. Selkie's real title is My Man from the Sea...unless something better occurs.
