I flew through this one and it required only minimal editing. Overall I was happy with the way it was written. Some of the dialogue felt stilted and unnatural and it was to the conversations that I made the most amount of changes. A few stock phrases, a couple of clichés hacked out and I was happy with that.
I was very happy with the progress of the story and how well it flowed. The 5200 words approx feels about the right length, unlike the other stories so far which have ended up either 10% longer or 10% shorter than the original edit. I added some atmosphere to a particular scene that was a bit dry and lacked the tension required.
When the attack comes roughly 50% of the way through the story, I found it all passed a little too quickly. To add tension and to get a sense of the panic inside the church, I fleshed this out a little more. During this scene there was a little bit of exposition that I decided was unnecessary and counterintuitive to the pacing of the scene. It is probably actually about the same length. Finally, there is less of a cliffhanger ending. It is obvious now what happens though we don’t actually witness the act.
I’m really getting a sense of enjoyment and achievement out of these editing exercises. I know that a lot of writers hate it as a necessary evil but I’m currently enjoying it as a kind of puzzle to be solved, or as an exercise in engineering a better product.
Embrace your inner editor sometimes, you will appreciate it afterwards.
It’s interesting to see how someone goes about making an edit, I’m just now learning the process of setting up a scene before hand and what I want from it so that, when I’m done, it’ll be easier to go back and say, “okay, did I accomplish what I wanted to do?” “Was my original premise broken somehow?”
I’m glad you’re happy with your editing exercises, they are something we writers often dread.
So many years after first listing those stories to Elfwood, I am getting such a sense of achievement out of identifying bad writing and correcting it. I’m definitely seeing improvements so in that respect it has been a very valuable exercise.
I think it’s funny, I use to Elfwood as well and yet you are the only other person in the world I have ever heard mention it before, I know its a big site, but it’s rarely talked about, at least in my circles.
I think in its current guise it has had its day. It was massive when I first joined 11-12 years ago but neglect and a lack of direction in a changing web has left it struggling behind. I was not getting reads or redirects any more from the site. Even artists I spoke to a few years back seem to get little feedback any more.
Yeah, I haven’t been on in years; remember it fondly though. Good stuff.