So how's it going?

Thus far I've managed to troll through almost 16,000 words - no mean feat.

I couple of times I've wanted to bang my head against the keyboard, but that would do nasty things to the laptop that I know I would regret later, so I didn't. I hit the table instead.

I hate it when you're editing a piece of your writing and you just know it's not right, but you really aren't quite sure what's wrong with the ruddy thing. You tweak stuff and you move stuff around and you chop bits, but it doesn't feel right some how.

Well, I've been having a few moments like this lately. It's a problem with my early chapters that I don't seem to have later on - or so my alpha reader assures me.

What would we do without critique groups? They are a Godsend!

It's amazing how having someone look at your work can switch on the light and show you the glaring problems within your work. I'm sure I would still be bumbling around in the dark, tearing my hair out otherwise.

After getting back chapter five from my group this week I realized my biggest issue was superfluous conversation. You know, back and forth dialogue that could really be half the length. I'm sure this is sometimes okay and there's a place for it, but NOT in the middle of a high intensity, high action chapter.

My characters superfluous chatter was dragging at the pace of the story like lead weights on a marathon swimmer. It was killing the story.

Janice Hardy, YA Fantasy author, wrote a great blog about this recently. You can read it here.

Of course, once I figured out what the issue was I took to the pages with my scalpel. Stab. Hack. Slash. And knit back together with some delightful prose.

As yet the Editors Hat it staying on nicely. Thanks for asking. Hubby did suggest I might need the nail gun to keep it on, but for now the staples are holding well.

Happy Editing everyone.