An Underestimation

My goodness i have totally underestimated how long it would take me to edit Secrets and Lies! I am less than a quarter through the first draft with my edit and it has taken almost 5 months.

I have read through the whole document on my kindle - so i couldn't tweak as i went! - and highlighted areas that needed deleting, errors, rewording, layering etc.
The process of going back through and editing those notes has taken longer, i know from all the research i have done to set the story in 1144 in the Outer Hebrides.
I am really enjoying this process but it is taking so long! I really fear that my story will not be any where near finished for either sending to publishers or self publishing by year end....

Working 4 days a week and being a busy mum really does take a lot of time and i take my hat off to those published mums out there! this process is taking a long time as i'm only opening my document once or twice a week, but i find i am exhausted from stimulating toddlers all day and then doing mum and housewife stuff when i get home!
While my house is looking very untidy and housework is slipping i find it hard/guilty to sit down and edit.
Does anyone else have this dilemma?

How do you balance writing time with family/housework duties?

A helpful Blog

Do you sometimes sit for ages at the keyboard trying to describe the feel of sand under foot or the frown on your character's face? Description for me is sometimes so painful. I use my thesaurus (yes the one on the bookshelf!), but can rarely find exactly what i'm lookin for.
But i think i have found my answer.Scrolling through some of the sites i like (left side of blog) i found a link to a blog that helps with description.

The Bookshelf Muse Has a thesaurus for physical attributes; colours; character traits!!

Describing weather, like a breeze and how it sounds, smells, moves, feels etc.
Describing body parts, like a stomach - flacid, bouncy, rotund, taut...

All of these come with bits of information linked to a characters possible emotion.

Even though i only scrolled through it quickly, i can tell i will be revisiting this site often!

Writing Tip: Cutting extraneous words during editing

I know i will be up to this part of editing soon. (Well probably a month or two away)

Rachel Gardiner recommends that before submitting or publishing your manuscript it could be in your best interest to do another round of edits and cut 10 words per page.

How?

Look for -ly words. Are they necessary?
So too for -ing words

cut out passive voice - 'was', 'were' and 'that'

shorten description

shorten internal monologue or show thoughts and feelings through dialogue or action.

repetitive telling what the reader already knows.

And, carefully considering a big list of overused words:
about, actually, almost, like, appears, approximately, basically, close to, even, eventually, exactly, finally, just, just then, kind of, nearly, practically, really, seems, simply, somehow, somewhat, sort of, suddenly, truly, utterly, were.


I don't know what my overused words are - well, actually i think i use 'hoped' too much!

What are your best editing tips, or overused words?