Well, it’s been an exhausting week of editing, but as of tonight, I’m pleased to say that I’ve finished roughly half of the serious rewriting I’ve left to do on Wide Horizon, and I feel very good about what I’ve done.

What lies ahead, however, may prove far more challenging.  My final editing is now taking me into the bulk of the story: Part 2.

Part 2 is, by far, the longest portion of the story as it currently stands.  It also represents the longest uninterrupted stretch of Wide Horizon I see little reason to change.  Most of Part 2 was written at the pinnacle of my writing: I was in the zone, churning out chapter after chapter with a clear idea of where I wanted to take things.  Thus, despite extensive revisions on my previous passes through the story, the bulk of Part 2 has been left largely as originally written.

Thus, this should be easy: a welcome breather after the rough slog I took through Part 1 and the opening chapters of Part 2.  But then there’s the word count: after my reworking of Part 1, the already-hefty word count of Wide Horizon has ballooned to over 146,000 words.  While I try to seek comfort in reminding myself that Dune clocked in at over 160,000 words, I’d like to think I’m not so arrogant as to compare myself to Frank Herbert.  I know I’m always saying that a story should be as long or short as it needs to be…but trimming off, say, 10,000 words or so, would be nice.

In an effort to trim my word count while also presenting a better story, I’ve changed my approach this time through.  While on previous passes through Wide Horizon I’ve been careful to only make major changes, leaving anything that seems good as it is alone, this time I’ve told myself to change things as I see fit.  It’s easy, as a writer, to fall into the “perfection trap”: constantly making a slew of tiny changes here and there, leading to an unending cycle of refining and re-refining and re-re-refining, while never being truly satisfied with one’s work.  “Not me!” I told myself.  No, I would avoid falling into the trap, and stop myself from picking those nits.

Well, as this is my final revision, this time I’m making whatever changes I see fit.  After all, this is my last chance; may as well do it now.  Hopefully, this approach will help me pare down Part 2 a bit, resulting in a more polished, efficient, marketable product.

Even still, I expect this portion of the editing to go smoothly and quickly.  With luck, by mid-week I’ll be closing in on Part 3, where the real work begins…