This is what lunch looks like when you learn that you have to cut about 75% of the 55k words you’ve written on your new book.
I had a tough call today about my current manuscript.
By my count, this is the 19th book I’ve written and (if all goes according to plan and contract) the 15th book I publish.
But here I am, about a ¼ through the book (many of my initial pages end up in the “out-file”) and realizing, “Ah, shit. This isn’t going to work.”
What am I trying to say? I guess that (at least for me) even being a “professional” doesn’t always mean getting it right.
And certainly not on the first go.
I’m saying that partners in this business are key: critique partners, agents, editors.
And, like it or not, they’re also often correct. The one thing an author never has about his or her book is objectivity.
So today was an ice cream and wine day. Tomorrow, I start a new book, pull in the pieces that still work… and take off again.