So I’ve decided to revisit some of my works that need editing, but thanks to the experience that I’ve earned from the past year, I will be approaching the stories differently.
Each chapter will now be considered a short story to me. It must have an intriguing logline form from it, and its summary must demonstrate that there is a conflict of some form taking place within.
The entire story must fit into a logline and small summary, and any sub-plots that are not key to the central arc must be evaluated.
Each character must either cause growth for the story or a character, or must grow themselves.
Ensure that the ending wraps up the main point of the story.
Delete all the commas, and then properly edit.
The first of my works to be receiving this treatment shall be Children of Twilight. Why? Because the original is a long, draw-out (120,000 word+ ) confusion made to bring the reader from one horror to the next. There are plot holes so large that the Mariana trench is jealous.
I’ve been wanting to clean it up for years, but only now do I feel I have the experience required.
I’ve already done my summary and logline, and 19 pages later, I’ve shaved the chapter count by almost half and considering how much I reduced Genmos by, (almost 48% reduction), I’m pretty confident that I can get COT between 60 to 100k words.
Now, the only question I have is, will it be something I will want to admit I wrote?