MathiasCavanaugh.com

Every day I get asked the same question, “Why are you still editing that novel of yours?”

I don’t think the answer is that complicated.  I simply want to produce a quality story in the end.  And, while I and others who have read Under the Darkened Moon think that the story is good, I personally don’t think it is good enough quite yet.  Although, I do think it is quickly getting there.

For me, there is no rush.  I’ve been writing off and on for over twenty years.  My very first novel, which I started back in high school, had three years invested into it and never got even half way done.  For Under the Darkened Moon, I opened the file (started writing the story) on June 18th of last year.  It is now October, nearly November a year later.  I could have pushed this work out there six months ago, at least according to some opinions, but certainly not my own.   As one person in my review group said, “It’s already better than 95% of what is self-published on Amazon and other sites like that.” (more…)

As I’ve blogged about several times, getting Chapter 9 for my work in progress (Under the Darkened Moon) ready for the manuscript has been a real struggle. The problem is that the chapter is one of those necessary bridges to get Kyel, the story’s main character, from point A to point B. Point A is Chapter 8. Point B is Chapter 10.

Alas, the scene has been really fighting me. (more…)

Last night was an epic struggle between myself, and what quickly seems to be becoming my nemisis.  Yes, chapter 9 seems to be becoming quite the little nuscience for me.

After an hour long struggle, two nearly full rewrites, and what almost escalated to an armed standoff, Under the Darkened Mono’s chapter nine has been reborn cet again.
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Preparing chapter 9 for the manuscript last night was absolutely brutal. I feel like the chapter literally kicked my ass.

There were so many things that simply did not sound right once I let the TTS start reading it back to me.  And here I thought I had done a good job with it during FINAL edits. Boy was I wrong.
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Ok, so more than one person is apparently confused about my editing process.  Since announcing that I was now moving into compiling my manuscript edit of Under the Darkened Moon, people have been saying to me things like, “But I thought you already did your ‘final’ edit?”

It’s true, I did do something that I did refer to as my “FINAL” (capital letters and all) edit.  But it didn’t mean that is was my “final” edit.
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With FINAL edits done, I am now on to the manuscript compilation phase for Under the Darkened Moon.  Ok, so “FINAL” edit is probably a misnomer because compiling the manuscript does entail some minor editing.  I’m still looking for errors, but mostly it will consist mostly of formatting.

However, I do read each chapter one, final time.  In the process, I am looking for: (more…)

Over lunch today, when I should have been working on the final edits for Under the Darkened Moon, I jotted down 1,800 words in a free writing exercise.  The story seems to have take on an interesting shape and intrigues me.  The story has a current working title of “Outsider”.
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With the Long List for the Fantasy-Faction Anthology released, you will notice that Second Chances did not make the cut.  Since the six stories to be published will be selected from the long list, Second Chances is now free as the proverbial bird.
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With the live read edit getting bogged down. I’m starting to go and insert the changes from chapters that have already been completed and adding a few more with a final read through myself.  Thus the final edit is going to begin now rather than after the live read edit ends as was originally planned.

You would think, after more than a dozen and a half edits, that there wouldn’t be many more changes to make.  But there are.  In fact, here is what the first two pages looked like after the live read.  Note all the yellow which are changes: (more…)

So, I have, I admit, been spending too much time on Twitter as of late and not doing enough editing on my novel, Under the Darkened Moon. I have been editing, just not as much as I should be. I’m nearly 75% complete with my polishing edit and, of course, after a year is when I now decide to make the main character 23 years old for the bulk of the story rather than 28. That of course means some timeline editing, etc. but nothing major.

I weighed the pros and cons and decided to make the change I have been batting around in my brain for the better part of the last six months. I give up some of the maturity aspect that the character would have had, but that is about it. Plus it makes some of my possible sequels work better by shifting the entire story ahead five years. This allows me to keep certain characters alive more plausibly than having passed to the ravages of time or being 70 years old at best. (more…)