Like Beer Goggles, Without the Alcohol...

I'm aware that it's been, well, forever since I posted. I'm aware, in a distracted, inattentive sort of way. This is because I've been plowing through my ms, hacking and sawing, carving away some 40,000 words. I know. The very fact that I had so many words to start with that I could loose 40k of them and still have a novel is ridiculous. But apparently, I like to say stuff, multiple times. When it was first suggested that I get rid of at least 40k words, I shook my head. Not possible. It won't flow. You'll loose important relationships, vital information.

Well, now that I've stop snorting milk through my nose in amusement at my own high drama, I'll get to the point of this post. And the point is this: I've cut OVER 40k words from my ms and it's only tighter and better paced. And I'm still trolling. I was too close the work, too embroiled in the telling, to see HOW I was telling. I reiterated things, I nagged in places, I over dramatized, and strayed from the fundamental natures of characters. And I never noticed. Not until I let the ms sit for a few weeks and then looked at it with fresh eyes. What I thought would be impossible, was desperately needed. My ms is now hovering around 123k words, and might wane yet. It 's longer than what some say a debut should be, but I think 120kish is a good length for fantasy, especially epic fantasy where it's important to flesh out the world and all its workings.

I have a quote from Ray Bradbury written on a Post-it note, stuck to my laptop where I see it all the time. I've had to rewrite it several times because the Post-it has warn out. It says "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." It's probably one of my favorite quotes. The trick is in remembering that in staying drunk on your writing, you develop writer's beer goggles. I'm sure that there are plenty of writers who never (or think they never) suffer from this malady. But I'm not ashamed in the least to say that I, for one, do. And all the more because I still refining my skill, still honing my craft. It's not all bad though. I believe in my ms, and the good of it was always there, waiting for me to toss the beer goggles and find it. But first, I had to realize that I had the beer goggles to begin with. I imagine that they'll show up again, probably already have, in other wips that I've been neglecting in my editing rampage.... But now I know how to deal with them, and each snippet of wordiness that I hack, teaches me how I might have better formed a scene or interaction, information I'll tuck away for a rainy day and the next blank sheet of paper.