By the numbers...

Previously titled Dark Side of Overachievers (how is that going to fit on a book cover?), Dark Water has undergone quite a metamorphosis in the last 11 months. My completed draft #2 (officially, version #7) is streaming though the laser printer right now. Line edits are the order of the day. FINALLY.

My 447 page, 90,024 word original draft was pared down to a 435 page, 87,736 word draft #2. Do the math - I cut 12 pages and 2,288 words. That's nearly 2300 words of fluff that had to be weeded out. I’m sure there’s more to come. Or go.

My critique partner Madeline (see photo at right) sends my chapters back to me with overused words highlighted (AND and SAID are the usual culprits). In an effort to fix that before she sees anymore copy, I used Word to do a find and highlight of a list of watch words. Here's what I found right before I printed the hardcopy:

And - 2104 times
Said - 425 times
Look - 223 times
Turn - 131 times
Smile - 116 times
Brow - 72 times
Shrug - 42 times
Laugh - 50 times
Serpentine - 1 time, though it came to mind often while I was composing. Weird.

Another milestone reached, onward to the next one.

NaNoWriMo stared yesterday without me. Time to play catch up.

Happy Writing!

Ava