And every time Sam Altman comes out saying, "You know, it turns out AI is actually bad for humans... especially how we're doing it," I want to punch him in the face because he can't be a driving force behind AI and the voice of reason.

It's weirdly cathartic to cut sentences and paragraphs right now actually. I think it's because I often don't have a lot of control in my life lately.

Oh, crap, speaking of which, I forgot to email my Ortho to reschedule the post-MRI appt. *sighs* Annnd it's back.

Right? "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio..." Why are we ruling out immortal beings on a Tuesday? C'mon.

Do it!

I mean, I knew exactly what it meant and what needed to happen--even if I ran away from doing it while laughing maniacally.

With my other books, I made sure I knew what was precious--what was the heart of the story. But, time helps. Time gives you distance that you don't always have in drafting. And, it's been full word carnage the last few months as I've been working on this revision because that damn pacing. 🙄

I knew publishing a book about a mental health condition, even an own voices book, would be a bit intense in editing. My agent and I agreed that she'd back me up if they tried to remove specific things. It was A LOT of work, but they never requested that. They understood.

This is all to say that it's nice when the words are less precious. It's important to know what is vital in your story and what you won't compromise on--what you will fight to the death on.

With Secrets of Skin and Stone I told my agent that I wouldn't allow the OCD/self-harm to be removed.

And, one thing you pick up...especially if you're listening to your story read out loud...is when a response or callback to something earlier is just too far apart because you've overly-padded the narrative. Your reader should never have to back up because they've forgotten what a response is about.

And when it's been a few years, you can look at that and think, "Uh, I later go into that in a scene. Why is he sitting there in silence reminiscing for 6 paragraphs? That's gotta be super awkward." Whereas, I might have fought for that right after drafting because that was *their* story.

And, the narrative is much better for it...so are the characters. One problem with too much lore dump is that dialogue callbacks or responses are less impactful.
Ex:
Character A: I despise you.
Character B: (inner monologue about how they once were friends for 6 paragraphs.) It wasn't always so.

Anyway, this book I'm really hoping to have out very soon...it had some pacing issues because it was the first book in a series, and I'm a pantser. I'm figuring out the world as I go, and I sometimes put way too much of that exploration in the first book of a series. But most of it is gone now.

Though, I don't know that those will ever get published. The downside of trad publishing a book in a series is that if the first one flounders, the rest may never see the light of day. *shrugs*

But, when I say I will die with stories not written, the same is true of stuff unpublished.

I currently have one YA book published under my pseudonym, Wendy Laine, but I've actually written quite a lot of books for that age. Several of my beta readers have been pushing me to publish a specific YA book in fact. And, there were 2 more books in the Secrets of Skin and Stone series.

And, aside from short stories or novellas, I still do. Everything I'm publishing, I drafted years ago and I've put it through a lot of revision cycles since then. In the sci-fi series, I put all the early books through revision when I finished drafting the final book because of world-building.

One nice thing about revising so long after I wrote something (2018 or 2019) is that I grow less possessive about words as time passes. It's much easier to just annihilate entire sections that aren't working in order to deal with pacing. I used to shelve all work for 6 months for that reason.

This is fully on-record? Like we can quote you on this official stance?

This alliterative note is "perused her person" which sounds uptight and weird anyway. But, you gotta avoid over-P-ing something. It gets spitty.

Normally, I'll do the rhyme-y or alliterative notes, but I'm leaving those for Future Wendy too. It'll break up the harder notes that will depress her and take actual brain power.

Uh, author here, what if you were a vampire or other immortal being? Have you considered that? I'm actually revising a book full of immortal beings. I'm just sayin...