One of my teachers, Ann Hood, said that when it comes to editing, there are two types of writers. One has to go back and add things in--that's Barbara--and one has to go back and cut things out. Guess who falls in that category?
I spent the weekend, literally, sitting in my rocker, cutting words, and cutting more words. The problem is that I can't just cut words. Contrary to what Barb says, I can't just go through and cut a bunch of adjectives. There aren't that many. Really. So to make cuts, I am having to re-write sentences and paragraphs, and in a couple of instances even re-think/re-write scenes. It's kind of like re-writing the whole book.
And I still have a ways to go. This is a long, tedious process, and definitely not the fun part of writing. The good thing is that I am really focusing on the emotions and trying to show them. I've also tightened up my dialogue, significantly, which is proving difficult considering that most of my characters are Southern. We Southerners love to embellish.
So I hope this is making my writing stronger. Oh my God, I hope so.
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