More Editing

I've reached the three-quarter mark in my final editing phase. The end is in sight!

I've been able to eliminate a lot of words [more than 1000 so far] – many of which were due to my tendency to overexplain. It's called, variously, TMI – too much information, an info dump, tell not show,

Now I've discovered another tendency, much like over-explaining. It's like telegraphing what the character feels or thinks, and then showing just that.

For example: "questions surged/rushed/flooded her mind. Why did...? What would? Who...?"

In deep POV, the sentence about questions isn't necessary. Readers know they are in her head, therefore they don't need that filter that explains, and move directly to the actual questions.


The strange thing is, at night before I fall asleep, I mull over the edits of the day and pounce on something that needs further work or deletion. I call it "night editing."

– Cat