revision strategy

The weather we’re currently blessed with in Sweden is out of this world. I’m profoundly impressed by my ability to time this with working from home, not being locked up in an office. Being able to work on my dream while enjoying cloud-free skies day in and day out surely makes for a smoooth life! (Let’s discuss financials another day.)

Last week I finished another round of editing, currently sitting with the third draft of Kilonova Blues beneath my fingertips. The manuscript’s really evolved during the past months and even though many of you surely can relate to never feeling “finished” editing, I’m still happy with where it’s at right now. Most major changes have been done, and for what grammar and language’s concerned, I’ve come as far as I can on my own and it’s definitely time to get some fresh eyes on the text.

The first draft came in on 111 390 words. Working with the second draft, I cut 3 436 words. Yay! I felt like a samurai warrior, ignoring my emotional ties, slicing the manuscript with my sword as though it was a simple cake. I wanted to cut down on some text to make it leaner and felt I was good underway.

Today I checked the current word count… 110 950! I’ve obviously added a shitload of new text and am only down 440 words from where I began. Ah! I just smashed my forehead and laughed before getting up to fetch a new cup of coffee. What to do?

I know this is not the final draft though, so I’ll just leave it as it is for now. In about two weeks I’ll send it to five competent and highly appreciated beta-readers, and I’ll await their reflections and feedback before making any other major changes to the text. Up till then, I’ll focus on formatting and minor changes, deleting an extra space here and there, maybe swap that word for this word and so on, you know the drill. AND – I’ll try to read the entire thing from a reader’s perspective without changing ANYTHING.

Dear Lord, give me strength.

That’s all for now,
hej så länge!