Lament of the Dove status check

[annathepiper]

The last several months have been shaky for me on getting new writing done, in no small part to all the medical crap I’ve had to deal with. So I’ve been focusing on getting editing done instead–and in particular, in carrying out the recommendation of two different agents to edit Lament of the Dove down hard.

Those of you who’ve followed the progress of this book on either of my LJs know that the first draft of this thing was a monster, weighing in around 167K in the word count. By the time I started seriously querying it to agents last year, I’d managed to beat the tally down to 137K.

Now, the target is 117K. If I get there, I’ll have killed 50,000 words out of it. That’s half a book right there. The whole process is teaching me a lot about how to make sure that every last word in a novel absolutely, irrefutably needs to be there–because in Lament, with three different POVs, I’ve got a lot going on. And I can’t waste words describing it.

As of this writing, I’m 4,500 words away from hitting the mark, and I’m finishing up Chapter 18 out of a total of 24 chapters and an epilogue. I think I can get there, hopefully by the time of my (hopefully final) surgery later this month.

Wish me luck.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Comments

[maellenkleth]

luck you are hereby wished; skill you already have. ^_^

[annathepiper]

Why thank you. :)

[raise-a-jar.livejournal.com]

Wishing you all the luck in the world! I have every faith that you will succeed with little effort :D

[annathepiper]

Thanks hon! I'm especially appreciative of that coming out of anyone who's actually beta read bits of Lament.

(Which will need another pass of beta reading, I think, what with me killing 20,000 words out of it...)

[raise-a-jar.livejournal.com]

Means it's again time for me to try to figure out how to get into the site where your writing is! LOL And we both know how successful I've been with that in the past :D

[annathepiper]

You won't need to worry about it quite yet, I still have about six chapters to go. But I'll be yelling loud when I'm ready, so you can let me know then if you want to check out the draft. :)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

[annathepiper]

Thank you. :)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

*crosses fingers* Sounds like you've been doing a hella lot of work. Thumbs up and best of luck as always! :-)

[annathepiper]

Thanks babe! :)