Feeling better, after having been low energy and sick for weeks. 3,000 words written today. (I'm contributing a chapter in a university textbook.) Part of this is just a burst of energy after having been unable to write anything significant for weeks.

That's a lot of production there. Glad to hear you're getting better.

I'm in the midst of 44, I need to do some minor fixing of 43 still. 44 is sort of bogging me down, it's a complicated situation character-wise. The end of this revision is slowly starting to come into sight.

I'm done with 44 and 43 now save for a few minor corrections. Onward to 45, there is a lot of total rewriting until the last couple of chapters now. Slowness will ensue. This area had been a lull in the plot so I need to cut back some of it. There are essentially four things I need to have happen and I want to paste them together will little excess.

I think I can land this revision at 130k. Surely there must be another 10k that can be removed from tightening and my planned cuts. I'd also like to work in a few more details so I'm hoping to cut 15 - 20k and put about 5k back in just fleshing out descriptions and characters.

44 - 99.5
45 - 102 - 1/2 Way
46 - 104.5 - IC
47 - 107 - S
48 - 110 - Esc
49,50,51 - 119 - Return
52 - 121.5 - D
53 - 123 - AB
54 - 125.5 - Con 1
55 - 128 - Con 2
Epi - 129

Well, 43 and 44 are done and I'm on 45. There's a lot to cut from the rough draft which pretty much means rewriting everything.

I got this from my beta exchange person.

10 RULES FOR GOOD WRITING* Advice from Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he’s written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

What’s Leonard’s secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you’ll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing*:

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

I've found that I seriously dislike the overuse of "suddenly", it's gratifying to see a pet-peeve on a list like this. Ironically, my beta-exchange person gets on me about not giving enough description of characters, places, and things. However, she has very valid complaints that the quality of description rather than quantity is often the problem. Nonetheless, it makes me feel better about the sparse descriptions I give on many characters.

I can't read the word "suddenly" without hearing "dun-dun-DUNNNN!!" music in my head. Similarly, "meanwhile" is always followed by "at the Hall of Justice".

Similarly, "meanwhile" is always followed by "at the Hall of Justice".

For me, it's "back at the ranch..."

Although my favorite Leonard quote on writing is when somebody asks a screenwriter in Get Shorty (so awesome. Be Cool=so sad) what kind of writing pays best and he says "Ransom notes."

For me, it's "back at the ranch..."

Exactly.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Years of editing Scottish-set romances proves this brilliantly. One more "I dinna ken" and I would have cried.

and the classic "och, lassie"