Edit Induced Delirium

I had to take a break, my brain is mush. Still editing, and periodically obsessing about the first paragraph of the prologue. I think I've got it right, for now. Tomorrow I'll probably read it and feel differently. I've cut the manuscript down to 110,000 words and I've still a ways to go, and there is one fairly long passage that I know I'll be taking out. This thing might be down to 100,000 by the time this edit is complete. Fine with me. It's getting tighter and smoother with every stroke and backspace. I've continued working on the query letter, and it is getting better. I hope to get some postive responses from the recent queries, although I haven't sent it out since the most recent improvement, which I guess I made last night? Yesterday? Who cares...

My brain is tired and when that happens I start second-guessing myself on the edits. "Does this sound right? Does it need to go or just change?" My perspective gets wacked and I know it's time to step away for a while.

I've started another story and it's at about 35,000 words and the story still can't decide if it wants to be literary fiction or a thriller. It could go either way. I may have to trash the last 15,000 words. Frustrating. This is my best writing to date, and the story is just hovering out there, indistinct and ambiguous, but it's there and I can feel it's presence waiting to be defined. I haven't written anything new on it in a over a week. Focused on the edit right now. I hope that by the time I finish agonizing over Gold I'll know what the hell is going to happen with the new one. If not I might have to leave it for now and move on to another story. The sequel to Gold or something entirely new. Whatever. It's too far in the future to worry about. If it's not happening tomorrow, it's too far to worry about.

I'm done. It's time to read. I have two books going right now, Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard, and The Night Manager by John Le Carre. Polar opposites in style, but both are engaging and entertaining. Peace and scrambled eggs with cheese...