As I’ve been telling my newsletter subscribers ad nauseam for a couple years now, I’m getting closer and closer to finishing my WIP, Hot Scenes. However, this time I’m closer than ever. No, really!
Still, I get why any reader seeing this might think immediately of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I understand. Sometimes my optimism outpaces my ability to grind out more copy.
But, quite frankly, my ability to grind out more copy becomes almost irrelevant when what matters most is my ability to self-edit. Allow me to explain.
Fast vs. Slow
As I mentioned in a previous article, I have an unusual writing style. While I don’t subscribe to the Terry Pratchett maxim, The first draft is just you telling yourself the story, I also don’t write a first draft quickly. Far from it.
In fact, because I write and edit and write and edit, as I go, by the time I get to the end of a project, the final editing process is relatively easy: I burn through an entire manuscript in a matter of days or even hours, making little more than cosmetic copy edits, in most cases.
I also understand that this process would drive many other writers nuts. All I can say is the old cliché: It is what it is.
So yes, I’m almost finished. Just a few chapters to go. Could take a week, could take a month. But as I race toward the finish line, it is well within sight.
