| THOMAS J. PRESTOPNIK |
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Update #10 - January 23, 2012 (previous updates listed below)
Half a million words later (just over 550,000 to be exact), here I am again.
As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to take the first two weeks in
January to read the prologue and eighty-eight completed chapters of my novel
in progress to see where it stood as a whole. That task took me almost three
weeks as I fit it in between working, occasional snow shoveling and watching
several NFL playoff games. I'm happy to report though, that it was an
enjoyable task. A fun read, if I do say so myself, where I looked forward to
coming home each day to continue with the next chapter even though I
already knew what was going to happen. I'll take that as a good sign.
As I read a printed version of the book in my reading chair, I kept a running
list of typos, grammatical errors or minor word changes that I wanted to make
and will correct on the computer later. There were under a hundred that I had
missed during previous edits. Since the last three chapters (Chapters 86 - 88)
are in Part Ten of the book which I'm still working on, I read those on the
computer as I hadn't made a good print copy yet. That gave me the chance to
re-edit those three chapters as I went along, cutting unnecessary words,
phrases and whole sentences here and there and rearranging the same in other
places. I enjoyed doing that and look forward to editing the entire project
when I finish the last ten chapters without the pressure of having to write
every day hanging over my head.
I always liked editing my work--getting rid of needless words, neatening up
clunky sentences and tightening the story as a whole. Editing is like putting
your work on an exercise regimen to trim it up and put some added spark and
vibrancy into its pages. When I finished editing Chapter 86 the other day, it
started out as 53 typed, double spaced pages. A few hours later, I had it down
to just over 51 pages. That's nearly two pages of what I once thought were
precious words now removed from throughout the text, making it leaner,
meaner and more enjoyable to read. Though I've been editing as I write, I
can't wait to go at the whole book with a literary scalpel when it's finally
finished. Though I was pleased with how much I liked the novel up to this
point, I found a few "talky" passages in two of the later chapters that I have to
tighten up. Out of the 2000 plus pages, those were the only parts I thought
dragged a bit. I wanted to sit down at the computer right then and fix them
as I knew what needed to be done, but I decided that I'd better get to work on
Chapter Eighty-nine first and save some of the editing fun for later.
So starting tomorrow, it's back to the keyboard, or occasionally pen and paper
during my work lunch hour when necessary. Another update next month.
Take care.
To read Updates #1 - 9 from 2011, CLICK HERE
Half a million words later (just over 550,000 to be exact), here I am again.
As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to take the first two weeks in
January to read the prologue and eighty-eight completed chapters of my novel
in progress to see where it stood as a whole. That task took me almost three
weeks as I fit it in between working, occasional snow shoveling and watching
several NFL playoff games. I'm happy to report though, that it was an
enjoyable task. A fun read, if I do say so myself, where I looked forward to
coming home each day to continue with the next chapter even though I
already knew what was going to happen. I'll take that as a good sign.
As I read a printed version of the book in my reading chair, I kept a running
list of typos, grammatical errors or minor word changes that I wanted to make
and will correct on the computer later. There were under a hundred that I had
missed during previous edits. Since the last three chapters (Chapters 86 - 88)
are in Part Ten of the book which I'm still working on, I read those on the
computer as I hadn't made a good print copy yet. That gave me the chance to
re-edit those three chapters as I went along, cutting unnecessary words,
phrases and whole sentences here and there and rearranging the same in other
places. I enjoyed doing that and look forward to editing the entire project
when I finish the last ten chapters without the pressure of having to write
every day hanging over my head.
I always liked editing my work--getting rid of needless words, neatening up
clunky sentences and tightening the story as a whole. Editing is like putting
your work on an exercise regimen to trim it up and put some added spark and
vibrancy into its pages. When I finished editing Chapter 86 the other day, it
started out as 53 typed, double spaced pages. A few hours later, I had it down
to just over 51 pages. That's nearly two pages of what I once thought were
precious words now removed from throughout the text, making it leaner,
meaner and more enjoyable to read. Though I've been editing as I write, I
can't wait to go at the whole book with a literary scalpel when it's finally
finished. Though I was pleased with how much I liked the novel up to this
point, I found a few "talky" passages in two of the later chapters that I have to
tighten up. Out of the 2000 plus pages, those were the only parts I thought
dragged a bit. I wanted to sit down at the computer right then and fix them
as I knew what needed to be done, but I decided that I'd better get to work on
Chapter Eighty-nine first and save some of the editing fun for later.
So starting tomorrow, it's back to the keyboard, or occasionally pen and paper
during my work lunch hour when necessary. Another update next month.
Take care.
To read Updates #1 - 9 from 2011, CLICK HERE
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