6-AM Editing Challenge – Week 6

People, I’m pumped.

I devoted this week wholly to organization because I want a clear picture of what needs to be done going into the final sequences of MIRRORPASS. I’ve spent my time reading the next sequences, re-reading the past sequence to refresh my memory of the status of plot threads, and identified scenes I want to cut or update.

The previous sequence has been like working in a hole. So much insane hashing, merging, cutting, and writing happened that I couldn’t tell if I’d cut wordcount or not, and upon re-read, I’ve discovered how many plot threads I wove in repeatedly because I couldn’t remember if they existed yet or not.

Pulling out of the hole is giving me a lot more clarity. But on top of that, I discovered some seriously exciting stuff:

I’m 60% complete with MIRRORPASS edits. That’s up from 54% when I started the 6-AM Editing Challenge, and now that I’m over the middle of the novel, I think the rest will come much faster.

During edits of the last sequence, I cut 4,500 words. This is HUGE. Since the beginning of this draft I’ve struggled over and over to cut wordcount. The lowest I’ve been was 95K, but now I’m down to 92K. All I need is to drop below 90K and I’ll be set wordcount-wise.

Only eight chapters remain.

Together, they make up two sequences.

Out of the remaining edits, I have about four scenes I’ve already identified for cutting. And I don’t mean scenes that need to be rewritten from scratch—I mean scenes that are going to be murdered and never revived. Goodbye, darlings.

However, I will need to do a lot of rewriting, because of issues with the climax that have bugged me since eternity. This may slow things down: rewrites require a lot of brainstorming and careful plotting. On the other hand, I’ve added so much support for myself, I feel like the ending is ready to spill out and finish itself.

And best of all? I have less than three weeks before graduation. Thanks to the amazing flexibility of my workplace, I’m expecting to have two hours every morning in which to write. If I’m smart and I stick to the challenge, and if God is gracious, there’s actually a possibility I’ll finish this draft by early June.

As for the rest of this week? I’m still organizing. I’ve realized how much stuff occurred in the last sequence that needs to be organized before moving on, so I’ll be tweaking those scenes and prepping for the upcoming Dark Moment sequence. Next week, I’ll start tackling it.

Any triumphs for you guys? Any fails?

Truly and always,

-Creative A