Sand in Your Crevices: A Case of Too Much of a Good Thing

“Lawrence of Arabia” keeps me company this early Tuesday morning. Peter O’Toole’s brilliance is always welcomed in my home, and you’ll often find Claud Rains, in one of his many guises, joining me for breakfast. Mr. Rains is one of my favorite companions, an actor who always brings a smile of delight to my face no matter the hour.

So, please excuse the desert sand between my lines this morning. Having myself ridden a camel through a desert (the Sahara in Morocco, in my case), I know how thoroughly invading the sands can be. (Think personal crevices, people, and shudder.)

Anyhow, time to return to writing.

Like I reported last night, Writhe is going well. Book One of the “Lion & Steed” series should be ready to go by its Ides of March deadline.

The only problem I’m beginning to find, beside the Chapter One tribulations we will not mention this fine morning, is that I’m afraid the book’s going long. Right now, it’s over 45K and I’ve still got several big additions to make.

This is an odd problem for me. Usually, at this point in the proceedings, I’m scrambling to add to the word count. Only once or twice, have I been blessed (?) with the conundrum of having to decide what to cut.

I’m not entirely sure I’m going to like cutting anything in Writhe. Not that it’s all brilliant literature, but simply because I actually like all of the scenes (Chapter One included… just because it’s being a royal pain at the moment, doesn’t mean I don’t care, after all *smiles*).

Thankfully, when you are writing a series with the major characters continuing on to the next books, you can simply re-fit cut scenes from one book to the next. So, in a very real sense, all is not lost… or so I keep telling myself as I prepare to cut and slash.

Another 3K of edits is on the books for today. Only after I see exactly how much I will need to be cut and “reimagined” for Book Two or Book Three, will I get those nasty pruners out and start sharpening those blades (“Ravenscar,” the short story I just sold to Dreamspinner Press, took a heck of a lot of pruning and the editing blades have become, I’m afraid, dull).

*sighs*

Oh well, at least I won’t be needing to vacuum my crevices tonight. So, I, for one, call life good.

Until tonight…

Chloe