The Writing Show Contest Update 7

Ah, lucky update number seven. My wife had gone through the draft again, more edits and cuts were made, and it was still over the limit. I went back through and cut another four hundred words. The current word count is now 4,826!

I'm printing it out now for another run through and then if it's deemed "done enough" I'll convert it to PDF and send the entry.

It's hard to edit a story. My wife is far better with the grammar and punctuation thing, but when it comes to cutting and rearranging, to changing words...that is hard in a different way. In my head I have a better idea of what I meant. On paper, it comes out different. Then with a word limit, you end up making cuts to details and information that seems to subtly change the story in ways you prefer not to change it, but at the same time you need to fit the requirements of your audience.

In the end the story isn't quite as "good" as you'd like it to be in some ways. But that comes with the territory I suppose. I know I was cutting words out with descriptions and dialog that I thought helped show some of the characters personalities and better illustrate to the reader what the environment and characters looked like.

So I tell myself that if I suddenly become very rich and famous, I can rewrite the story as a "director's cut". I know very well that in truth I'll probably never touch the story again, but this achieves the short term goal.

Hopefully this means that this weekend my entry will be ready to email to Paula B.!