Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. I really would like to send Darkship Renegade to my publisher before I go to worldcon. Whether or not this is possible, it depends on whether or not I find anything major – like scenes that are missing but should be in there. But, for now, I’m trying to at least figure out if it can be done.
Revision is never easy, particularly the “final revision before it goes out.” On the one hand I find myself cringing at sentences and expressions or wondering if I truly confused Earth and Eden just because they both start with E. And what bright idea that was! Don’t I know better not to have covalent entities (two planets, two cities, two humans) with names starting with same letter? What an amateur mistake to make.
But of course Eden was Eden for reasons that will become obvious as the series goes on, (if it does, of course) and also because the Mules had a sense of humor. Same sense of humor inspired that as the escape ship named Je Reviens. Or, as my older son put it, “Don’t ya’ll go celebrating our departure too hard. We’ll be back!”
Besides, and this is very, very hard – you can’t change something like that on the second book.
Anyway, when mark the first page in editorial symbols it always worries me a little. I think I’m being rational “How to make this easier to understand” and not over-severe as in “Ah! That is so bad! I can’t believe I wrote that.”
But the truth is, I can’t know except when it comes back to me in copy edited format. By then I should have written another one or two books and be able to face this dispassionately. At which point if I have removed flavor, I’ll add it back in.
But it’s sad when you can’t trust yourself and aren’t sure you did the right thing. However, that’s sort of how revision works. You’re always wondering if you’re being too defensive, or not defensive enough, patting the little darling on the head, or parting its hair with an ax.
No wonder other people think all writers are crazy. (We’re at worst somewhat sanity challenged!)
And now I’ll go load up on caffeine and return to the crazy-making.
According To Hoyt 
I get you and I sympathize. I second guess myself so much during the revision process.
Good luck and good luck hitting your goal by WorldCon. Wish I could meet you there but…it was World Con or World Fantasy and I’m trying to be at peace with that decision, too.
Remember, you rock.
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yes, yes, I am often QUITE unsteady (G.) This year we were going to skip both large cons for economic reasons, but of course, getting the award makes it all diferent.
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I’m pretty sure the advice usually is “kill your darlings.” Not sure that use of an axe in the process is mandated, but… why do I think ax can be spelled with or without the e? And is there a difference? Maybe you should use the axe for e-darlings, and the ax for plain paper?
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Mike, I’ve heard that too, and it’s pretty good advice for beginners. The things you’re most proud of as a “beginning writer” are often the dripping ridiculous sentences. OTOH when you are an informed/practiced craftsman/woman and you are particularly proud of say, getting a sentiment across subtly, killing that would be… er… counterproductive.
And now you’ve gotten me thinking of the axe and ax thing, and I have work to do. It’s ALL your fault.
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I thought I posted this already…
axe vs. ax — turns out that Americans use ax, while British usage is axe. Otherwise, no difference.
And I’ll happily read your darlings. Just not too much purple, okay? Okay…
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My problem is stripping down too much, not too much purple. What I’m fighting now is the tendency to not let anyone see the character tremble, much less bleed. Yes, it is a bad thing. Yes, I’ll probably go too far the other way, before I correct, but what the heck.
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