Editing of Choose Yr Future is going well. Well, I think it is. Well, it’s going anyway. I seem to be adding as much as I am subtracting which is a little annoying as the main aim in editing was removing flabby, unnecessary detail (at 144000 words, I was hoping to trim it down a bit. Which I am doing but who can tell whether what is added now will be deemed excess weight next time.

This is the balancing act of editing well. Taking the garden shears to your prose can be extremely satisfying and I have been groaning inwardly at some of the more flowery sentences. But even as I’m wielding, I wonder am I taking it too far. Perhaps it will die, unable to sprout anew. So I find myself adding new shoots here and there. To balance it out, you know.

This is the part of editing that is difficult – how do you know that you are making the right choices. Of course, nothing is deleted permanently. I studiously keep every copy. When I go through the printed out pages and make alterations, sometimes by the time I go to make those changes on the computer, I have changed my mind again. Either to leave it as it was or do something different again.

A lot of these changes sort themselves out. This will not be the last edit by any means. And then there will be beta readers and professional editors and hopefully eventually something publishable will emerge. It’s a long road but at least I am making progress along it.