Hello, dreamers. After spending a week working on self-pub, I’m back at it on my work-in-progress. And I’ve hit the ground running. It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Wednesday. So without further ado, here’s the latest:

Aquarius 1

As planned, I’ve resumed work by reworking early chapters. Thus far, most of the changes have been minor, though I did add more development for Karen in chapter two. The biggest change so far happened last night.

My original plan had been to combine existing chapters, and condense the story. But over the first few chapters, I saw no need to add more content. They felt fine the way they were. Then, I got to the action of phase one: a spacewalk gone wrong. My intention was to simply combine the two chapters into one, but the resultant chapter was hefty: over 5500 words. So, I began editing. And I’m glad I did.

Action sequences need to be fast-paced. Short sentences, concise description. It has to flow quickly in order to build tension. And the action sequences in those chapters read like a David Attenborough documentary about sloths. So I began revising. I tightened things up, removed excessive description, trimmed words. And the result was exactly what I wanted: a tense account of two men’s struggle to survive in space.

What’s more, I managed to shave the word count down to around 4600; well below my goal of just under 5k. I often worry about editing while writing a story. I fear I’m too close to the narrative to work objectively, often more content to just leave things as they are. But this was different, and I’d like to think it represents me turning a corner as a writer.

Tonight, I’ll be forging on with this revision. Work may take several more days, but I believe I’m still on track to finish by the end of the week. Until then, dare to dream. – MK