A Cutting Party is what happens when your book is WAY over word count and the author needs to cut about 40 pages worth. For some reason that painting by Edward Munch--the Scream--comes to my mind. LOL
I've got to have these pages cut by Tuesday, so if there aren't many posts in that time…please understand.
And if you think of it, I could use a prayer or two.
14 comments:
Sir, yes sir!
I will be praying not only that you cut what is needed but that you make the story leaner AND stronger than ever before.
Thank you, Scribe. My hope exactly.
40 pages? Yikes. I can only imagine how many words that might take. I've had to cut and shore off passages from my stories, though not in reaction to a word limit, just because the scenes didn't work. I've also had to look a lot of scenes and ask if they are truly needed, or if there's a simpler way to communicate what I intended. I wish you the best!
Thanks, G. I do have plenty to fix as well. There are a couple of scenes I'm really wedded to, but they may not merrit keeping b/c they just don't really need to be there.
The thing I hate about some cuts is the ripple effect. You make a cut, and then you have to go through the rest of the manuscript to fix/change all the places that alluded to the now missing piece.
Well, the only thing I can say about that is it proves that you write well. If you yanked on threads and they came out without disturbing the warp of the tale then it wouldn't be a well woven one. Take comfort in that where you can.
NOW I understand the comment you made on my blog. LOL!
I left you an answer there.
Hang in there. You can do this!
The final work will only be stronger and tighter.
Yes, I'm afraid I wasn't in jest. But you're right. As much as I protest initially, the end result is almost always better.
This may sound like a silly question, but is 40 pages really that much, or do the printing machines konk out after a specific quota?
- Jason
lol. No, but from what I've been told, they powers that be PreEstablish a word count and that starts the process of designing the covers, typesetting, etc. And apparently, they've already added a couple of 16 page signatures. OOPS.
Hmm, sounds like the powers that be have the cart before the horse, or maybe the dragon before the knight? It is an interesting peak into the machine churns out the books, also a rather sobering one. Honestly, I wouldn't be upset if they spiral bound the copies and sent them out now. I love hearing how popular your work is with your fans .. .I really really do. . .but the die hards are more than restless and I am going to be seeing pitch forks and torches soon. Hey, how about a reccomended read from you for those that just can't wait? Not now, I don't want to add to weight you have, but ah, soon? Soon would be nice.
Splendid idea, Scribe. I put one on amazon about a month back. I should add one to my sidebar. Hmmm...
I like your reference to the scream considering the circumstances. I real just cant fathom the thought of cutting 40 pages from a book i had work hard on. I wish you the very best of luck.
Thanks, Josh. By the grace of God, I finished my edits last night. Whew. Now, I just need to catch up on sleep. lol
well i am happy for you and I cant wait to read the book. :)
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