Prior to starting the edit of Cat’s Eyes I had 15 chapters, but early in this edit I combined the first two chapters and made that section of the story a lot shorter, so now I only have 14 chapters.
Yesterday, after two weeks of no writing activity, I spent a number of hours on the old chapter 13 (now chapter 12). This is the chapter where all the action takes place (well, no all, but you know what I mean). It’s the lead up to the “big moment”. Hence, it needed a lot of work. And I mean a lot of work. Strangely, or maybe it’s not strange at all, this is the chapter where I received the most critiques too.
Combining all those comments I received almost did my head in, but I managed to sort through the good and the bad. I virtually rewrote complete sections, whilst other parts were edited over and over again. I believe I read through the chapter about three dozen times, editing all the time. Then, when I thought I’d finished, I gave the chapter one final read through and still made changes.
Eventually I had to just make myself stop. I was scared that I’d gone “edit happy”. I will read through the chapter again today, and hopefully I won’t feel the urge to make even more changes. If I manage to read and not edit, it will mean that I only have two chapters to go. The end is in sight.
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